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OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 




Also communicable 
One of Chicago's open-air schoolgirls, as pictured by 

The Survey 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

BY 
LEONARD P. AYRES, Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE, 
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 



FORMER GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OP SCHOOLS 

FOR PORTO RICO ; CO-AUTHOR OF " MEDICAL INSPECTION OF 

SCHOOLS;" AUTHOR OF "LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS" 




ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1910 



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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 



COFYSIGHI, igiO, BX DOUBLEDAY, FAGE & COMPANY 



(0)GI.A'368305 






CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Origin and Development .... 3 

Beginnings at Charlottenburg, 1904 — Spread throughout 
Germany — First English school at Bostall Wood, 1907 — 
First American school at Providence, 1908 — The Porto 
Rican experiment — Spread throughout America — Future 
of the open-air school. 

CHAPTER II 

Open-Air-Recovery Schools in Germany 13 

First forest school at Charlottenburg, 1904 — Cooperation 
of educator and school physician — Description of plant — 
Daily programme — Physical care — Physical results — 
Educational results — Schools at Miilhausen and Munchen- 
Gladbach — Other German schools. 

CHAPTER III 

Open- Air Schools IN England ... 29 

First school established by London County Council at 
Bostall Wood, 1907 — Object of school — Situation of 
school — Selection of children — Daily programme —Teach- 
ing staff — Feeding of children — Physical examinations — 
Cost of school — Physical results — Educational results — 
School transferred to Shooters Hill, Woolwich, 1908 — 
Two new schools opened at Horniman Park and Kentish 
Town — The Bradford school — Description of children — 
Daily programme — Results. 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

PAGE 

Open- Air Schools in the United States . 45 

Intimate connection with anti-tuberculosis campaigns — 
First school at Providence, 1908 — Description of plant — 
Description of children — Daily programme — Support — 
Results — First Boston School, 1908, at Parker Hill — 
Reorganization, 1909, at Franklin Park — Description of 
plant — Daily programme — Results — Second reorganiza- 
tion — Report of special advisory committee of Boston 
School Committee — Selection of Boston children for open- 
air classes — First New York School, 1908, on ferry-boat 
Southfield — Schools on other ferry-boats — Provision for 
open-air rooms — Selection of children — Control of tem- 
perature — Support — Chicago's first school, 1909 — De- 
scription of plant — Results — School reorganized for win- 
ter of 1909 — Results in winter school — Chicago's open- 
air rooms for normal children — Results of experiment — 
Hartford's tent school, 1909 — Schools in Rochester and 
Pittsburgh. 

CHAPTER V 
Results 75 

Physical results at Charlottenburg, Miilhausen, and Miinchen- 
Gladbach — Gains in weight at Bostall Wood — Diagrams 
showing gains in weight — Physical results at Bradford — 
Physical gains at Chicago — Results in the Chicago open- 
air room — Haemoglobin tests at Providence — Physical 
results at Boston — Attendance results in Boston's open- 
air rooms — Educational results. 

CHAPTER VI 
Feeding 99 

Necessity for feeding — Daily menu at Charlottenburg, 
Miilhausen, and Miinchen-Gladbach — Dietary at Bostall 
Wood — Menu of the Bradford schooi — Menu of the 
Chicago school — School lunches at Providence — Food 
and food values in the Boston school. 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER VII 

PAGE 

Cost . 113 

Difficulty of computing cost — Expenses at Charlottenburg 
— Expenses at Bostall Wood — Cost of maintenance of the 
Boston and Chicago schools — General rules governing 
expenditures. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Construction and Clothing . . . 123 

Work of Dr. Thomas S. Carrington — Two general classes, 
open-air schools and fresh-air rooms — Description of typi- 
cal roof building — UtiUzation of unoccupied dwelhng- 
houses, ferry-boats, and abandoned schools — Structural 
changes in old buildings — Temperature control — Cloth- 
ing requirements for cold weather — Soapstones, water 
bottles, foot boxes, sitting-out bags — Clothing for teacher. 

CHAPTER IX 

Forms for Record-Keeping . . . 139 

Forms must record progress — Providence and Chicago 
physical record cards — Hartford weight chart — Pupils' 
weekly record, Boston — Individual term record, Boston. 

CHAPTER X 

Need for Open-Air Schools . . .151 

American and European schools of diflferent types — Annual 
cost of tuberculosis among school-children — Computations 
from England, Sweden, and five American cities of nmnber 
of children needing open-air-school treatment — Selection 
of Boston pupils for open-air classes — Summary of results. 

Bibliography 159 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Also communicable. One of Chicago's 
open-air school girls, as pictured by The 
Survey Frontispiece 

FACING PACK 

Folk-dancing in Franklin Park School, 

Boston 6 

A class in basketry, Boston . . 7 

The first open-air-recovery school — The 

Forest School at Charlottenburg, Germany 16 

The Miinchen-Gladbach School, showing 

veranda classroom for wet weather . . 17 

Open-air exercises at Bostall Wood . . 32 

A class in practical geography, Kentish Town 33 

The rest hour during pleasant weather, in 

Kentish Town 38 

Portable buildings constitute the plant at 

Shrewsbury House ..... 39 

Open-air classroom, Bradford, England . 42 

The afternoon rest at Bostall Wood, Eng- 
land 



Main building, Bradford, showing covered 
way and porch classroom 



42 
43 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE 



General view of Thackley open-air school, 

Bradford, England 43 

Letting the sunshine in: exterior. Provi- 
dence ....... 48 

Letting the sunshine in: interior. Provi- 
dence ....... 48 

The heating and cooking plant in the Provi- 
dence School ...... 49 

Franklin Park School and pupils, Boston . 52 

Individual equipment in Boston includes 
heavy outer clothing, sitting-out bag, port- 
able desk and chair .... 53 

Refreshments outdoors, Boston . . . 54 ;. 

Needlework under the trees, Boston . . 55 

The ferry-boat Southfield, utilized for an open- 
air school in New York City ... 58 

The rest hour on the Southfield, New York 

City 58 

A class on the deck of the Southfield in Jan- 
uary, New York City. . . . . 59 

Washing up for dinner on the Southfield, 

New York City 60 

Rest hour in the cabin of the Southfield, dur- 
ing very stormy weather. New York City 61 

Outdoor class on the roof of Public School 21, 

Manhattan, New York City ... 64 



ILLUSTRATIONS xi 

FACING PAGE 

The classroom tent of the first Chicago 

school ....... 65 

Tent interior, Chicago ..... 65 

Open-air exercise, Chicago . . . . 66 

Hartford class, with appropriate but inex- 
pensive equipment ..... 67 

A classroom is used as a dining-room at Roch- 
ester ....... 68 

Hand-work is a prominent feature in the 

Rochester school ..... 68 

The rest hour at Rochester .... 69 

Garden work was popular at Bostall Wood 92 

Halifax, England. The children help in such 

tasks as cleaning cutlery .... 92 

Working out trade routes between Europe and 

North America, Dulwich ... 93 

Dinner time in the first English school at 

Bostall Wood 100 

At the Birley House School, Dulwich, Eng- 
land, meals are eaten out-of-doors in true 
picnic style 101 

Hot soup at recess time. Providence . . 106 

Forenoon refreshment in the Chicago school 107 

Dinner time at the Franklin Park School, 

Boston 108 

Lunch hour at Hartford . . . 108 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

Dinner hour on the Southfield, New York City 109 

Class and roof building, Franklin Park 

School, Boston 124' 

Photograph of the Chicago roof tent as 
published by The Survey to illustrate 
permanent construction .... 125 

Open air — open minds. Used by The 
Survey to illustrate class work in the 
Chicago school ..... 126 

Wind shelter at the New York School Farm 127 

The Hartford School in an army tent in 

February 128 

The windows at the Providence school are 
hinged at the top, and can be raised 
against the ceiling by cords and pulleys 129 

With sitting-out bags, soapstones, heavy outer 
clothing, children are comfortable even in 
the coldest weather. Providence . . 130 

Some Providence children equipped with 

sitting-out bags . . . . . 131 
Rest hour, Franklin Park School, Boston . 132 

Hand-work receives as much attention as 
health-work and head-work on the South- 
field, New York City .... 133 

Tables and chairs are substituted for desks 
and seats in the fresh-air rooms of the 
Graham School, Chicago . . . 133 

Fresh-air fiends in the Graham School, 

Chicago ....... 140 



ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 

CHARTS, DIAGRAMS, ETC. 

PAGE 

Chart I. Variations in weight of Kathleen 

M , Bostall Wood Open-air School . 80 

Chart 11. Variations in weight of Arthur, 

Bostall Wood Open-air School . . 81 

Chart III. Showing the average weekly gain 
or loss in weight of children attending the 
Bradford Open-air School, in 1908 . . 86 

Chart IV. Haemoglobin tests. Providence 

Open-air School, 1908 .... 89 

Attendance in Prescott School, Boston, in 
1907, of same class during two and a half 
months indoors, and two and a half 
months outdoors .... 94 

Dr. Carrington's sitting-out bag . . . 135 

Individual record card used at Providence 

[facing page] 141 

Record card — Chicago Open-air School . 142 

Individual weight chart — Hartford Open- 
air School 143 

Personal record sheet — Franklin Park 

School 146 

Personal term record — Franklin Park School 147 



INTRODUCTION 

The object of this little book is to place 
before school superintendents, teachers, and 
others interested in educational work the 
essential features of present knowledge 
about open-air schools. It makes no claims 
to originality, and its material is largely 
taken from reports of the different schools 
in Germany, England, and the several 
American cities. 

Information concerning the German and 
English schools has been taken largely from 
a report published in 1908 by the London 
County Council. Much of the material 
©oncerning the Providence and Boston 
schools in the United States is from a report 
entitled " Outdoor Schools," published in 
1909 by the Boston Association for the 
Relief and Control of Tuberculosis. 

In less measure other reports have also 
been used as sources, and the information 



xvi Introduction 

gleaned from them has been supplemented 
by means of extensive correspondence, 
wide use of press clippings secured through 
newspaper clipping agencies, and personal 
visits to several of the schools described. 

So many persons interested in the new 
type of school have aided by supplying 
facts, records, and photographs that it is 
impossible to give due credit to all indi- 
vidually. Among those to whom special 
thanks are due are Dr. Gardner T. Swarts, 
Dr. Ellen Stone, and Miss Ellen LeGarde 
of Providence; Dr. Thomas F. Harrington, 
Miss Isabel Hyams, and Mr. Alexander M. 
Wilson of Boston; Dr. Henry F. Stoll, 
Miss Clara A. Pausch and the editor of 
the Daily C our ant y of Hartford; Mr. 
Sherman Kingsley, Mr. Frank E. Wing, 
Mr. William E. Watt, and V. H. Palachek, 
Managing Editor of the Examiner, of 
Chicago; Dr. William H. Maxwell and 
Dr. Gustave Straubenmiiller of the New 
York Department of Education; Dr. 
Thomas S. Carrington of the National 
Association for the Prevention and Cure of 



Introduction xvii 

Tuberculosis; Mr. Thomas Hanly of the 
Van Norden Magazine; Mr. Arthur P. 
Kellogg, of the Survey; and Mr. Tho. 
Garbutt, Secretary of the Bradford Educa- 
tion Committee, Bradford, England. 

Leonard P. Aykes. 
June, 1910. 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 



CHAPTER I 

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 

IN THE year 1904 there was opened in 
Charlottenburg, a suburb of Berlin, 
a school of a new type to which the Ger- 
mans gave the name "open-air-recovery 
school." The object of the founders was 
to create a school where children could be 
taught and cured at the same time, and it 
is this same purpose which has actuated the 
founders of all of the other schools of similar 
type which have since been opened. 

The new educational venture was a 
school designed for backward and physi- 
cally debilitated pupils who could not keep 
up with the work in the regular schools and 
were not so mentally deficient that they were 
fit subjects for the classes for subnormal 
pupils. It was felt that if these children 
were sent to sanatoria they would undoubt- 
edly improve physically, but would fall back 



4 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

in their school work. If, on the other hand, 
they were kept in the regular schools, they 
would deteriorate physically. 

It was to meet this need that the new 
type of school was devised. It was a school 
held almost entirely in the open air. The 
treatment consisted of an outdoor life, 
plenty of good food, strict cleanliness, suit- 
able clothing, and school work modified in 
kind and reduced in quantity. 

Few educational innovations have made 
so quick an appeal to the popular imagina- 
tion as did the open-air school. During its 
first season the school at Charlottenburg 
was open for only three months, but imme- 
diately upon the publication of the report 
of what had been accomplished, the desire 
to found other similar schools spread 
throughout Germany. The children who 
had been the fortunate subjects of this first 
open-air experiment had made wonderful 
physical gains. They had increased rapidly 
in weight and in strength, and many who 
had been suffering from serious ailments 
had been entirely cured. 

Such results as these were gratifying but 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 5 

not very surprising, for it was nothing new 
to discover that the best sort of sanatorium 
treatment combining an outdoor life and 
plenty of good food will prove physically 
beneficial to those who enjoy its advantages. 
Such results were especially natural when 
the patients were growing children. But 
what was not foreseen and did come as a 
distinct surprise was that the children in the 
Charlottenburg school did not fall back in 
their school studies although they spent less 
than half as much time on school work as 
did their companions in the regular schools. 
They not only fully maintained their school 
standings, but rather surpassed their com- 
panions in the regular classes. 

It was these reports of combined physical 
and mental benefit that spread at once 
throughout Germany and caused the school 
authorities of other cities to begin the erec- 
tion of open-air schools. In less than three 
years the movement had spread to England, 
and in 1907 London opened its first school. 
The results obtained during the first season 
were as remarkable as those reported three 
years previously from the suburb of Berlin. 



6 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Again the accomplishments of the new type 
of school awakened popular enthusiasm, 
and towns and cities in different parts of 
Great Britain began to plan for other similar 
establishments. 

Meanwhile the movement had spread to 
America, where the first open-air school was 
established in 1908 by the city of Providence, 
Rhode Island. Although the Providence 
school is the first American school of the 
type originated in Charlottenburg and which 
we are here considering, it was not strictly 
speaking the first open-air school estab- 
lished on American territory. 

So far as can be learned, the first such 
school under the American flag was built 
in the city of San Juan, Porto Rico, in 1904, 
by the author of the present work, who was 
at that time superintendent of schools of 
the Porto Rican capital. The school in 
question was an experimental building 
made to accommodate one hundred chil- 
dren. It had a floor and roof, but no sides. 
Venetian blinds were provided to keep 
out driving rain and too direct sunlight. 
This school was designed for children of 




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ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 7 

no particular class, but was built in the 
endeavour to demonstrate that the treat- 
ment which has proved beneficial for weak 
and ailing people will also benefit strong 
and normal children. 

The results demonstrated the correct- 
ness of the proposition. The children 
greatly preferred the outdoor classes to those 
in the regular school buildings, and there 
were always on file applications from 
teachers who wished to be assigned to the 
outdoor work. At least one other open- 
air school has been built in Porto Rico 
because of the success of the first experiment. 

Coming back to the United States, we 
find Boston following the lead of Providence 
and during the month of July, 1908, estab- 
lishing a "school of outdoor life." In 
January of the same year New York opened 
its first school of the new type on an 
abandoned ferry-boat. During the next 
summer Chicago opened its first outdoor 
school and has since continued the work. 
Hartford, Rochester, and Pittsburgh have 
also taken up the movement and are 
operating open-air schools. 



8 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

It is now realized in several of these cities 
that the movement is past the experimental 
stasre and is to be reckoned with as an 
established feature of educational practice. 
The educational authorities of Boston have 
adopted a resolution providing that each 
new schoolhouse built in that city shall 
have at least one open-air classroom. New 
York City has taken a somewhat simi- 
lar action, and is at the present time 
remodelling twenty classrooms in different 
buildings so that they can be used for 
open-air classes. 

It has been said that the two greatest dis- 
coveries of recent times are the value of 
children and the virtues of an open-air life. 
It is questionable whether we should all 
agree in according preeminence to these 
two so-called discoveries, but there can be 
no question that there has been in the last 
few years a wonderful public awakening 
along both of these lines. 

This may account for the enthusiastic 
reception which has been almost univer- 
sally accorded to the open-air school. It 
is an educational innovation that combines 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 9 

within itself a new kind of particularly 
effective work for children and an appeal- 
ing object-lesson in the beneficial results 
of the outdoor life. 

It is entirely too soon to prophesy what 
the future of the open-air school may be. 
That many such schools will shortly be in 
operation is a foregone conclusion, and that 
their effect on educational progress will be 
far-reaching seems almost as sure. Just 
what this effect will be, none can foretell, 
but it seems not improbable that the open- 
air school will be recognized by future 
historians of education not merely as a 
therapeutic agent, but rather as marking 
one long step toward that school of the 
future in which the child will not have to 
be either feeble-minded or delinquent or 
tuberculous or truant to enjoy the best and 
fullest sort of educational opportunity. 



OPEN-Am-RECOVERY SCHOOLS 
IN GERMANY 



CHAPTER II 

OPEN-AIR-RECOVERY SCPIOOLS IN GERMANY 

EARLY in the year 1908 the London 
County Council published in the 
same pamphlet a report of the work of the 
open-air school conducted at Bostall Wood 
during the summer of 1907 and a report of 
the Council's educational adviser on the 
open-air schools of Germany. It is from 
this latter report that the following de- 
scription of the German schools is largely 
taken. 

Medical inspection of schools has been 
carried on in a very thorough and efficient 
manner in Germany for the past fifteen 
years. This has drawn special attention 
throughout the Empire to backward chil- 
dren. These children are treated in special 
classes and sometimes in special schools. 
The quantity of the instruction given them 
is reduced, and every endeavour is made to 

13 



14 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

keep, and even to increase, its quality. The 
classes are taught by the most capable 
teachers, and the children are specially 
favoured in such hygienic instruction con- 
nected with the schools as baths, meals, 
and holiday homes. Under this treatment 
the children improve so rapidly that the 
majority of them can, in the course of a 
few weeks, be passed back into the ordi- 
nary schools. 

In the year 1904 there were in Charlotten- 
burg, a suburb of Berlin, a large number 
of these backward children who were about 
to be removed from the ordinary elemen- 
tary schools to spbcial classes. Upon exam- 
ination it was found that many of them 
were in a debilitated state owing to anaemia 
and to various ailments in incipient stages. 
This circumstance afforded an ideal oppor- 
tunity for the cooperation of the educator 
and the school physician, and to meet the 
need a new type of school was devised. 
This was the open-air-recovery school. 
Its province was to carry on the instruction 
of the children with the help of improved 
methods and surroundings, and at the same 



SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 15 

time to endeavour to cure or better the ail- 
ments from which they were suffering. 

The open-air-recovery school as first 
developed in Charlottenburg is a new type 
of school modified to meet the educational 
and physical needs of sick children. The 
school physician insists upon open-air treat- 
ment, pleasant and hygienic surroundings, 
careful supervision, wholesome food, and 
judicious exercise. The teacher modifies 
the ordinary school work to meet the new 
conditions. The hours of formal teaching 
are cut in two, and the classes are so reduced 
that no teacher has more than twenty-five 
pupils in charge. Moreover, the character 
of the work is modified. All that is not 
truly essential is omitted, and every endeav- 
our is made to utilize the many opportunities 
afforded by the close contact with nature 
which is the ever-present characteristic of 
the school. 

In Charlottenburg a suitable place for the 
school was chosen in a large pine forest 
on the outskirts of the town. The sum 
of $8,000 was voted by the municipality 
for carrying out the experiment, and primi- 



16 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

live but suitable wooden buildings were 
erected. 

At the outset, ninety-five children were 
chosen, and this number was afterward 
increased to one hundred twenty, and still 
later to two hundred fifty. These chil- 
dren were mainly anaemic children and 
those suffering from lighter forms of pul- 
monary, heart, and scrofulous diseases. 
Children suffering from acute or infectious 
diseases were rigidly excluded. 

Five main buildings were erected. Three 
of them are plain sheds about eighty-one 
feet long and eighteen feet wide. One of 
these is completely open on the south side, 
and closed on the other sides, and provides 
accommodations during rainy weather for 
about two hundred children during the after- 
noon period of compulsory rest. The two 
other sheds contain five classrooms and the 
teachers' room. These two buildings are 
closed in on all sides, provided with heat- 
ing arrangements, and are only used for 
instruction in very cold and unpleasant 
weather. They are both portable build- 
ings. In the classrooms, instead of desks. 




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SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 17 

simple tables and chairs of different heights 
and sizes are provided. The last two of the 
five buildings are very large sheds open on 
all sides and fitted with tables and benches. 
They are intended for meals and for work 
during rain or too bright sunshine. 

All over the school area, which is fenced 
in, there are small sheds open on all sides 
and fitted with tables and benches to accom- 
modate from four to six children. They 
serve, like the larger sheds, for writing or 
reading during too much sunshine. There 
are small buildings for shower baths and the 
kitchen, and a shed where the wraps of the 
boys and girls are kept. In these sheds 
there are also individual lockers which con- 
tain, among other things, numbered rugs 
for protection against cold, and waterproofs 
for protection against rain. 

The children arrive at the school a little 
before eight o'clock in the morning. Those 
who live near come on foot, and the others 
come in special electric cars. Upon their 
arrival the children receive a bowl of soup 
and a slice of bread and butter. The 
classes commence at eight o'clock with an 



18 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

interval of five minutes after every half- 
hour of teaching. The instruction is re- 
duced to the most necessary subjects and 
is never given for more than two consecu- 
tive hours. At ten o'clock the children 
receive one or two glasses of milk and an- 
other slice of bread and butter. After this 
they play about, perform gymnastic exer- 
cises, do manual work, or read. Mean- 
while the same process in the reverse order 
is carried on with other children who play 
during the first two hours and study from 
ten to twelve. 

Dinner is served at half-past twelve and 
consists of about three ounces of meat with 
vegetables and soup. After dinner the 
children rest or sleep for two hours. For 
this purpose folding chairs and rugs are 
provided and absolute quiet is required. 
At three o'clock there are some classes, and 
at four milk, rye bread, and jam are dis- 
tributed. The rest of the afternoon is de- 
voted to informal instruction and play. 
The last meal, consisting of soup, bread and 
butter, is given at a quarter to seven. After 
this the children return home as they came, 



SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 19 

some on foot and some in the electric cars. 
In the case of some of the very poor chil- 
dren, the municipality pays the fares, while 
transportation is furnished some of the 
others through the generosity of the street- 
car company. 

The expense of feeding the children is 
borne by the municipality in the cases of 
those children who are unable to pay, and 
is defrayed in part or in whole by the 
parents when they are able to do so. 

The work of the school physician consists 
first in the careful examination and selection 
of the children for the open-air school, and 
secondly in their treatment while they are 
in attendance. Attention is principally di- 
rected to the heart, lungs, and the general 
condition of the children with respect to 
colour, muscular and flesh development. 
At the end of each two weeks they are care- 
fully weighed and measured. At the end 
of the open-air period they are all carefully 
examined and the condition of each com- 
pared with that noted upon entrance into 
the school. 

The prescriptions of the doctor chiefly 



20 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

concern such questions of applied hygiene 
as suitable clothing, the dally habits of chil- 
dren suffering with heart and pulmonary 
troubles, and the ordering of warm baths 
for anaemic and nervous children and of 
mineral baths for the scrofulous ones. At 
Charlottenburg bathing plays a very im- 
portant part in the every-day life. Dur- 
ing the first year thirty-three children re- 
ceived two mineral baths per week and 
twenty-five children two or three warm 
baths per week. All of the children re- 
ceived two or three warm shower baths 
each week. At the beginning and end of 
the term the school doctor came every day, 
and during the middle portion two or three 
times a week. He was assisted by a trained 
nurse. 

During the first year the school was open 
for three months. After a few weeks a great 
improvement in the condition of the children 
was shown by their better appetite, attention, 
and general temperament. In nearly every 
case the children were greatly improved in 
physical condition, and a large number 
were pronounced cured. On the average 



SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 21 

they gained one-half a pound each week 
during the entire period. Many of them 
increased by eight or ten pounds during the 
three months, and some of them by as much 
as eighteen pounds. 

The educational results were no less re- 
markable. All of the teachers agreed in 
noticing a marked increase in the mental 
alertness of the children during the hours of 
teaching. In the great majority of cases 
the results of the school work were quite 
satisfactory. Three months after the re- 
turn of the children to their various schools 
in town, reports by the principals showed 
that almost without exception the children 
were able to continue in a normal manner 
in their former classes. In other cases their 
progress was even more satisfactory than 
before their attendance at the open-air 
school. These results are significant and 
suggest pertinent inquiries as to current 
pedagogical methods. 

No less important were the improvements 
noted in the moral tone of the children. 
Their behaviour showed great improve- 
ment, especially with regard to order, clean- 



22 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

liness, self-help, punctuality, and good tem- 
per. This was the logical result of their 
removal during practically all of their wak- 
ing hours from the influences of street life 
to those of more wholesome conditions in the 
school. They were taught to regard them- 
selves as members of a large family and 
were trained to assist in the work of the daily 
life of the community and to be helpful 
and considerate toward one another. 

In the first year of the school the term 
was only three months in length. In the 
second year it was increased to six, and in 
1906 it was continued for eight months. 
This carried the term up to the twenty-sec- 
ond of December, when there was snow on 
the ground. The authorities feel that they 
cannot carry the school on right through the 
winter until they have solved the question 
of heat. This will probably involve an 
extra expenditure for more solidly built 
schoolrooms with thick walls and better 
heating arrangements. When these changes 
are wrought, the school will probably be 
carried on through the whole winter. 

No sooner had the reports of the first 



SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 23 

year's work at Charlottenburg been printed 
than interest in the new type of school was 
awakened throughout Germany. In 1906 an 
open-air school was established by the muni- 
cipality of Miilhausen, in a park with a large 
residence called the "Hermitage," situated 
in the southern portion of the town. It 
was purchased by the municipality at a cost 
of $50,000 for the use of the school children. 
Much of the experience gained in Charlot- 
tenburg was utilized in the new school. 
During the first year one hundred children 
were in attendance. The daily routine did 
not differ greatly from that followed in 
Charlottenburg. The results of the work 
at Miilhausen have been very satisfactory, 
although not so comprehensive as at Char- 
lottenburg, for the reason that the period of 
attendance was shorter and the records less 
complete. 

During the same year, 1906, a school was 
opened at Miinchen-Gladbach near Co- 
logne. It was established in memory of 
the silver wedding of the Emperor and 
Empress. It is situated in a pine wood 
some distance from the town, and consists 



24 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

of a simple school building with shed 
attached, closely surrounded on three sides 
by pine trees, but with a clearing on the 
south side. 

Gymnastic apparatus, a circular path for 
running, apparatus for games, and garden 
supplies are provided. The wooden build- 
ings have been erected in the artistic North- 
ern style to be seen in the Scandinavian 
countries. The whole expenditure for build- 
ing and equipment amounts to about $4,000. 

During 1906 the school was opened from 
May to October, and the highest attend- 
ance (58) was reached in September. 
The children attended on Sundays and 
holidays, as well as on other days, but 
were given no instruction. During 1907 
the experiment was tried of keeping the 
school open for eight months, but per- 
mitting any individual child to attend for 
two months only. As the school accommo- 
dates about fifty children, this new arrange- 
ment would permit of treating two hun- 
dred children annually. Moreover, the 
plans contemplate enlarging the school and 
increasing the length of attendance. 



SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 25 

In July, 1907, a school was opened at 
Elberfeld, and since that time additional 
schools have been established at Lubeck, 
Dortmund, and Btickow-in-der-Mark. 
Berlin has voted $75,000 for beginning 
work on an extensive scale, and such other 
large cities as Solingen, Cologne, and Aix 
are considering plans for beginning work. 
There can be little doubt that in a few years' 
time the majority of the large industrial 
towns will be provided with schools of this 
new type. 

In Germany, the open-air-recovery school 
has now passed the experimental stage 
and become an integral part of the ele- 
mentary school system. In general the 
school at Charlottenburg is being taken as 
a model on which the other schools are 
patterned. In all cases the principal char- 
acteristics are open-air treatment, plenty of 
good food, warm clothing, strict cleanliness, 
and expert medical and dental attention. 

The keynote of the school work is con- 
stant change from work to play, reading, 
singing, and rest, together with constant 
stimulation of interest. 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 



CHAPTER III 

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 

THE first open-air school in England 
was established by the London County 
Council in July, 1907, at Bostall Wood, 
Plumstead. This action was taken follow- 
ing a visit of the municipal authorities to 
the famous school of Charlottenburg in 
Germany. It was this visit which resulted 
in the publication of the report on the 
German schools to which reference has 
been made in the opening paragraph of 
the preceding chapter, and it is from the 
section of the same publication dealing 
with the results of the first English open- 
air school that the following description 
is taken. 

The object of the school at Bostall 
Wood, like that of its predecessors, 
was twofold, first, to benefit physically 
children found to be in such poor health 

S9 



30 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

that they could not profit fully by the 
instruction given in ordinary day schools; 
and secondly, to give such children special 
physical treatment in such a way as to 
prevent any educational loss. The children 
for whom the school was designed and who 
were actually chosen to attend it were 
unable to keep pace with the other children 
in school, usually attended irregularly, and 
were incapable of continued mental or 
physical exertion. 

It was thought that by the alternations of 
mental work, rest, and organized play the 
children would not fall back in their school 
work and would make decided physical 
gains. This hope with respect to formal 
class instruction was based on the fact that 
there would be an opportunity in this school 
to have much smaller classes than would be 
the rule in the city schools, and that instruc- 
tion would be along more practical lines 
and much more individual in character. 

The grounds in which the school was 
carried on were on a well-wooded enclosure 
of about twenty acres. A turfed space 
about seventy yards in diameter, almost in 



SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 31 

the centre of the wood, was used for the 
school itself. This clearing was surrounded 
by a single row of benches and there were 
two large sheds open at one side. These 
were used for teaching purposes and for 
meals in wet weather. Both instruction 
and meals were given outside of the sheds 
in fine weather. 

A meeting of the head masters and head 
mistresses of fifty-six London schools was 
held at Bostall Wood early in July. The 
scheme for the proposed school was ex- 
plained, and they were told that the number 
of children admitted would be limited to 
one hundred. In view of the smallness of 
the number each head master or head 
mistress was asked to nominate only the 
children most needing treatment. 

Two hundred seventy-two children were 
proposed by the school principals and 
were examined by the school physicians. 
Only those cases likely to benefit by attend- 
ance at the open-air school were passed. 
Children suffering from incurable organic 
disease were eliminated, and in general 
those admitted were debilitated and anse- 



32 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

mic children suffering from conditions of 
crowded city life. The children were of 
the type familiar to those who have much 
contact with city schools and congested 
districts. They were thin, pinched, pale 
and wasted, and showed in every case 
signs of physical enfeeblement. The chil- 
dren who were rejected were either too 
good or too bad. In all, those selected 
numbered one hundred forty-nine, although 
the greatest number on the roll at any one 
time was one hundred eight, and the average 
was a little under one hundred. 

The school was kept open for thirteen 
weeks. The work of the school began at 
nine in the morning and continued until six 
in the afternoon on each week-day except 
Saturday, when there was a half-day session 
only. Three and three-quarters hours per 
day were devoted to school work. The 
other five and a quarter hours were given 
over to eating, sleeping, games, play, and 
wandering about in the woods. The time 
devoted to formal teaching shows that 
attendance at the school was no holiday for 
either teachers or pupils, but meant real 




o 
o 



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a 
o 



a. 



to 



SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 33 

hard and continued work for both, although 
under conditions which prevented hard 
work from becoming drudgery to either. 
The work was carried on upon practical 
lines as far as possible, resulting in a con- 
dition impossible to reproduce in an 
ordinary schoolroom. The tasks necessary 
in camp life afforded valuable training to 
those children able to take part. 

The teaching staff consisted of a head 
mistress with two men and two women 
assistants. There were also a nurse and a 
caretaker and attendant, while the ser- 
vices of a school physician were regularly 
given. The teachers were engaged for 
the work on the condition that they should 
continue to receive their salaries as ordinary 
teachers, together with reasonable travelling 
expenses, and that after the close of the 
open-air school they should have their 
holidays and reoccupy their permanent 
positions. 

The children attending the school were 
given three good meals a day. The food 
was prepared at a cookery centre about 
one-fourth of a mile from the school. A 



34 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

cook and two helpers were employed, and 
the food was taken to the wood in order 
that the children might have their meals in 
the open air. Upon arrival at nine o'clock 
the children were served with porridge, 
syrup, and milk. At twelve-thirty they 
were given dinner, which was the heavy 
meal of the day. It consisted of meat, 
and occasionally fish, with potatoes, plenty 
of green vegetables, pudding, and fruit. At 
three-thirty in the afternoon biscuits and 
fruit were served, and at five-thirty came 
tea, so called, consisting of weak tea mostly 
milk, bread and butter, jam, and currant 
buns. Care was taken to serve all of the 
meals under the best possible conditions. 
The tables were decorated with flowers and 
there was an air of refinement and pleasure 
in the whole proceeding. 

One of the County Council medical 
inspectors undertook the routine examina- 
tion of the children at the school. Every 
child was examined in detail within four 
days of admission. Conditions found were 
registered upon the cards, and records were 
made at frequent subsequent visits. All 



SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 35 

of the children were weighed and measured 
and results entered upon a chart on the 
obverse side of each child's card. A weekly 
record of the weight was taken by tlie nurse. 
As it is impossible to estimate ansemia 
accurately from mere inspection, each child 
was tested twice to ascertain the percentage 
of haemoglobin present in the blood. The 
findings gave valuable data for determining 
the condition of children entering and the 
improvement resulting from open-air life, 
feeding, and rest. 

A special feature was the provision for 
rest or sleep that the children were required 
to take for two hours in the afternoon — 
from one to three. For this purpose one 
hundred steamer chairs and blankets were 
provided. Twenty-five mackintoshes were 
also supplied for the use of the children 
most needing them on wet days. It was 
found necessary to have tents for the use of 
the teachers, and two of the bell type were 
hired from the War Ofiice. 

Through the kindness of a friend who 
was interested in the work, a donkey and 
cart were loaned for the use of the children. 



36 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

This contributed much to their enjoyment 
and was found useful for taking the weakest 
of the children from the wood to the car 
line at the end of the day when some were 
too tired to make walking enjoyable. 

Experience showed that it would be 
beneficial to have sail-cloth covers for the 
sides of the sheds in wet weather. It was 
discovered, too, that, while the steamer 
chairs were very Satisfactory for the children 
to rest and sleep in, they were not at all 
satisfactory for study purposes. 

The expense of conducting the school 
for thirteen weeks was met by an appro- 
priation of $2,000 from the Government, 
by contributions from friends of the work, 
and by payments made by the parents of 
the children partially to defray the expenses 
of the work. To keep about one hundred 
children in school for a little over three 
months cost a little less than $3,000, or, 
roughly speaking, $10 per month per child. 

As to results, there can be no question 
that a notable success was achieved in the 
face of numerous difficulties. Every child 
attending was benefited physically by the 



SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 37 

experience. The general improvement was 
great and in some instances remarkable. 
The general effect of the open-air life upon 
the children was easily discernible in their 
improved colour and animated demeanour. 
They were brighter and more full of spirits at 
the end of the school term than at the begin- 
ning. They moved more briskly and their 
intellects were keener. Physical improve- 
ment was shown by greater control over mus- 
cular and nervous movements, and the power 
of increased physical and mental effort. 
The increase of voice volume was most 
marked and significant. In a number of 
cases the eyesight of the children improved 
notably. 

Increased resourcefulness was shown. 
Two of the boys painted one of the sheds 
in a very creditable manner, and most of 
them developed handiness at various man- 
ual tasks. When one of the cookery assist- 
ants left through illness, the children took 
up the work, and all of the necessary laundry 
work, washing of table-cloths, etc., was 
done by the children after the first week. 

The average increase in weight was six 



38 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

and a half pounds per child for the entire 
period, which is equal to a gain of one-half 
a pound per week per child. This gain 
was most noticeable during the latter part 
of the time. During the last four weeks 
the children averaged a gain of one pound 
each week per child. The greatest increase 
was nearly fourteen pounds. 

The children not only profited by their 
school work, but they loved their school. 
Although the opening hour was nine a.m., 
many of those who lived within walking 
distance arrived as early as seven o'clock, 
and stayed as late as they were allowed to. 

In 1908 the Bostall Wood site was given 
up, and this school transferred to a much 
better site on Shooters Hill, Woolwich. 
The government grant was increased from 
$2,000 to $10,000. Two new schools were 
opened, one at Horniman Park, and the 
other at Kentish Town. Each school pro- 
vided for seventy-five children in three 
classes. The staff in each case consisted 
of a head teacher, three assistants, nurse, 
cook, helper, and school-keeper. 

Dr. Frederick Rose, adviser of the Lon- 




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SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 3D 

don County Council and one of the most 
active advocates of open-air schools, has 
gathered data from which he estimates 
that there are between thirty-five and forty 
thousand children in London in such poor 
physical condition that they cannot attend 
ordinary school without injury, but who 
may greatly profit from being sent to open- 
air schools. 

The example set by London was followed 
in 1908 by Halifax and Bradford. In both 
of these cities open-air schools were opened 
in untenanted estates, where the mansions 
and outbuildings were utilized for school 
purposes. The Halifax school reports that 
the gain of the children in weight was from 
one to eight pounds, the average being three 
and a half pounds. Marked improvement 
was also noted in behaviour and studies. 

The Bradford school was opened on 
August 31, 1908, and remained open for 
nine weeks, closing for the season on Octo- 
ber 30th. A very good account of the 
work of the school and its results is con- 
tained in a special report published by the 
Education Committee of Bradford in 1908. 



40 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

The situation chosen was almost ideal. 
The school was situated in a five-acre field 
almost five hundred feet above sea-level. 
The school was backed by an extensive 
wood which spread itself around three 
sides of the site. The school building 
consisted of two classrooms facing the south- 
east and opening on to a veranda in such 
a way that the veranda and the classrooms 
were practically one. 

The children were thirty-nine in number. 
Most of them were described as "very 
poorly developed," "delicate," "neglected- 
looking," "anaemic," and "scrofulous." 
The seriousness of their physical defective- 
ness and generally debilitated condition is 
shown by the following table, which gives 
the physical defects found when the children 
were examined : 

Phthisis (consumption of 

lungs) .... 
Tuberculous peritonitis 
Tuberculous scars on neck 
Bronchitis .... 
Adenoids .... 
Otorrhoea (ear discharge) 



present in 


2 




1 




2 




1 




7 




2 



SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND 



41 



Rickets 

Anaemia 


present in 5 
" " 18 


Enlarged submaxillary 
glands 


" " 28 


Eczema 


" " 2 


Blepharitis .... 
Keratitis 


" " 2 



The children gathered each morning 
in the centre of the city and left at half- 
past eight for the school, arriving shortly 
after nine. They returned home each even- 
ing at six-thirty. The following time-table 
shows the general programme for the day: 



9 A.M. 

9: 45 to 10:45 
10:45 toll 
11 to 12 
12:30 . 

1 to 2 P.M. 

2 to 3 

3 to 4:30 



5.00 . . 
5:30 to 6 



Breakfast 

Ordinary school work 

Play 

Ordinary school work 

Dinner 

Rest 

Play 

School work, outdoor les- 
sons, e.g., nature study, 
geography 

Tea 

Play 



Three meals a day were given, as the 
physician in charge did not approve of the 



42 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

practice common in the open-air schools of 
Germany of supplying food more frequently. 
For breakfast the children had porridge, 
milk, bread and butter. The dinners varied 
from day to day. In general the plan was 
to give soup, meat, vegetables, and pudding. 
The evening meal consisted of milk and 
bread with butter or jam. 

As will be seen from the programme, an 
hour was given each day for absolute rest 
of all the children. For this purpose 
steamer chairs were provided and were so 
constructed that the children were able 
to lie in a much more recumbent position 
than is possible in most steamer chairs. 

Each child was bathed weekly, and it was 
considered that baths constituted a very im- 
portant part of the treatment of the children. 

School work was carried on in the open air 
and gave very satisfactory results. 

The children gained weight in a very 
satisfactory manner. At the end of the first 
month the average gain was two and a half 
pounds, or approximately as much as the 
children would have gained in six months 
under ordinary conditions. 




Open-air classroom, Bradford, England 




The afternoon rest at Bostall Wood, England 




Main building, Bradford, showing covered way and porch 

classroom. The construction of the entire plant 

is notably solid and appropriate 




General view of Thackley Open-air School, 
Bradford, England 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS IN THE 
UNITED STATES 



CHAPTER IV 

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FROM the inception of the open-air- 
school movement in America, it has 
been everywhere intimately connected with 
the work and propaganda of the various 
anti-tuberculosis organizations. For this 
reason, detailed information about the 
various schools is mostly to be found in 
the publications of these associations rather 
than in the official publications of the 
boards of education. 

This is illustrated by the fact that the 
following descriptions of the Providence 
and Boston schools are largely taken from 
a booklet entitled "Outdoor Schools," 
issued in 1909 by the Boston Association 
for the Relief and Control of Tuberculosis, 
and that much of the information on the 
Chicago school is taken from a pamphlet 
entitled "Chicago's First Open- Air School," 

45 



46 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

also issued in 1909 by the Chicago Tuber- 
culosis Institute. In the cases of all of 
these cities, mention of the work of the new 
schools has been made in the official reports 
of the educational authorities, but these 
reports have been much briefer and less 
detailed than those issued by the anti- 
tuberculosis forces. 

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND 

The credit and honour of establishing the 
first open-air school in the United States 
belong to the city of Providence, Rhode 
Island, where the work was begun on 
January 27, 1908. The location was a 
brick schoolhouse centrally located in the 
city and not then occupied. A room 
on the second floor was remodelled by the 
removal of part of the southerly wall, 
thus practically converting the four- 
sided schoolroom into one of three sides, 
leaving the fourth side open. For the 
brick wall thus removed, windows were 
substituted. These windows extend from 
near the floor to the ceiling, with hinges 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 47 

at the top and with pulleys arranged so 
that the lower ends can be raised to the 
ceiling. 

The desks of the children are placed in 
front of the open windows, the pupils facing 
the teacher, whose desk is in the opposite 
corner of the room. The children thus 
receive the fresh air at their backs, and 
get the light over their shoulders. The 
movable desks of the children occupy 
half of the room. 

In the other half of the room there are 
two stoves — a large, old-fashioned cylinder 
stove for heating purposes, and a modern 
kitchen range for cooking. If the day is 
cold enough, the children upon their arrival 
go to the side of the room and get their 
blanket bags in which they sit at their desks. 
By putting their feet and legs in these bags 
and keeping on their outdoor clothing, they 
are comfortable even in the coldest weather. 
When necessary, they have in addition 
soapstone foot-warmers. The heat from 
the big stove tempers the air so that the tem- 
perature rarely falls to the freezing point. 
Besides the sitting-out bags the children 



48 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

are furnished with low felt shoes which they 
exchange for their own leather shoes should 
these latter become damp on the way to 
school. 

The school was started as an ungraded 
one, with ten pupils, and the number was 
later increased to twenty-five. 

Practically all of the children have been 
selected by the visiting nurse of the local 
League for the Suppression of Tubercu- 
losis, from homes visited by herself and the 
other tuberculosis nurses. In a few in- 
stances children with moderately active 
lesions have been accepted, but for the most 
part they are children who have been 
exposed to tuberculosis, and who are be- 
lieved to be infected, but who have no active 
lesions. 

During the school year, from September, 
1908, to June, 1909, twenty-eight children 
were enrolled. The cases were classified 
as follows: 

Bone cases 4 

Gland cases ^. 4 

Chest cases 19 

Non-tuberculous 1 





!iF^n!nii![|l!!i.|, 



Letting the sunshine in. Exterior, Providence 




Letting the sunshine in. Interior, Providence 




The heating and cooking plant in the Providence school 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 49 

Fifteen cases had reacted positively to the 
tuberculin test. No open cases were ac- 
cepted, nor any cases running a constant 
temperature above normal. 

The children arrive at the school at nine 
o'clock in the morning, and have a recess 
at ten-thirty, when they are given hot soup. 
At twelve o'clock they all take seats around 
tables and eat lunch. This consists of a 
hot pudding, such as tapioca or rice, served 
with cream, and hot chocolate or cocoa 
made entirely with milk. In addition, 
many of the children bring potatoes or bits 
of steak or chops, which are also cooked 
and added to the lunch. The cooking is all 
done by the teacher. 

Before eating, each child must thoroughly 
scrub his hands, wash his face, comb his 
hair, and after eating clean his teeth. Each 
child is taught the necessity of having an 
individual drinking-cup and tooth-brush. 

Details of the children wash the dishes 
each week and take turns in setting the 
table and in serving. Those who are not 
thus engaged go out into the yard and play 
until the school reassembles at one o'clock. 



50 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

At two-thirty o'clock school Is dismissed for 
the day. Pupils who have come from a 
distance are provided with car tickets 
through the League for the Suppression of 
Tuberculosis. Some receive tickets for 
travelling both ways, and some for one way 
only, depending upon the need and strength 
of the child. 

During the school day some light gym- 
nastic exercises are given. Including wand 
drills, and the children are taught proper 
methods of breathing. 

In the spring the children have a garden 
in which they themselves work under the 
supervision of a man employed for this 
purpose in connection with the other public 
schools. 

The Providence open-air school Is a part 
of the general school department of the city. 
It is located in a public-school building and 
the school supplies are furnished and the 
salary of the teacher paid by the School 
Committee. The League for the Sup- 
pression of Tuberculosis defrays the expense 
for food and the carfares. The children 
are under the constant observation of a 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 51 

woman doctor who is active in the work of 
the League, and is also one of the regular 
medical inspectors of the city schools. 

The school has been a thorough success 
from the start. Almost without exception 
the children have benefited greatly from the 
open-air treatment. The report of the first 
entire school year stated that all of the chil- 
dren except one showed marked improve- 
ment. There was an average gain in weight 
of five pounds, the highest gain being four- 
teen pounds by a girl ten years of age, and 
the smallest gain for a pupil attending the 
whole year, being three pounds. Moreover, 
there were gains in alertness, truthfulness, 
etc., that cannot be measured by figures. 
A number of the children, as their physical 
condition improved, have returned to the 
regular schools, and have been well up in 
their school work instead of being back- 
ward, as they would have been had they 
remained in the regular schools. 

BOSTON 

On the sixteenth of July, 1908, the Boston 
Association for the Relief and Control of 



52 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Tuberculosis opened a school of outdoor life 
at Parker Hill, Roxbury. The equipment 
consisted of a lean-to used as a kitchen, 
toilet rooms with shower baths, and a large 
tent used as a dining room and as a shelter 
in stormy weather. Three meals a day 
were served. The children spent their time 
caring for their vegetable and flower gar- 
dens, assisting with the housework, resting, 
and playing. No formal instruction was 
attempted. It was simply a day camp for 
tuberculous children. 

The results were so satisfactory that the 
Association decided to ask the Boston 
School Committee to cooperate with them 
and establish an outdoor school. This was 
readily agreed to, and the Public School 
Committee supplied the teacher, desks, 
books, etc., while the Association under- 
took to supply the necessary clothes, food, 
nurse, attendants, home instruction and 
care, and the medical service. 

The school was held in the tent up -to 
January 14, 1909. After that date it was 
transferred to Franklin Park. The loca- 
tion was a large building originally erected 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 53 

for a refectory. Upon the roof of this 
building the city and the Association erected 
an outdoor schoolroom. In the room there 
were twenty adjustable desks and seats 
besides the teacher's desk. The building 
was thirty feet long, twenty feet wide, and 
fifteen feet high. The roof was covered 
with rubberoid, and on the four sides were 
canvas curtains, which could be lowered in 
stormy weather. 

Inside of the building there were a kitchen 
and dining room, toilet rooms, rest rooms, 
and an emergency schoolroom. 

The children were provided with reclin- 
ing chairs and blankets, overshoes, over- 
coats, sitting-out bags, and individual cups 
and tooth-brushes. All of these articles 
were numbered and remained the property 
of the children while they were in the school. 
If the children's outer clothing became 
damp on the way to school it was replaced 
during school hours by those belonging to 
the school. 

The children arrived at eight-thirty and 
had breakfast. Lessons began immediately 
afterward. Details of the children cleared 



54 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

the tables, washed and dried the dishes. 
The time between breakfast and dinner was 
devoted to regular grade work divided into 
twenty-minute periods. Dinner was served 
at twelve-thirty, and the children helped 
to set the table and serve the food. After 
dinner there was a rest period for one hour, 
and school work was then resumed. At 
four-thirty a light supper was served, and at 
five the children returned home. 

Cleanliness was insisted upon, and the 
children were required to wash their hands 
and faces before each meal and brush their 
teeth afterward. 

The children were weighed and had their 
temperatures taken every day. The Asso- 
ciation nurse took them to the dental clinic 
to have their teeth put in order, to the eye 
and ear infirmary to get glasses for those who 
needed them, to other hospitals as needed, 
and made provision in settlement houses or 
public baths for bathing at least once a week. 

The school was kept open on Saturdays 
and during the holidays under the super- 
vision of a kindergarten teacher supplied 
by the Association. 




o 



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3 






SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 55 

All of the children in the Boston school 
had originally shown physical signs of weak- 
ness in the lungs, but no distinct or marked 
open cases were admitted. 

The children who were able to do so 
brought ten cents each day to help defray 
the cost of the food. In the cases where the 
family was too poor to do this the money 
was supplied by some charity. 

While the combined public and private 
support had in the main proved thoroughly 
satisfactory, it seemed best for many reasons 
to reorganize the school so that it would 
be entirely under municipal authority. 
This has accordingly been done, and at the 
present time the school is maintained by 
the Consumptives' Hospital Department of 
the city and the School Committee together. 
The Hospital Department furnishes trans- 
portation, food, etc., while the School Com- 
mittee elects the teachers, pays their salaries, 
and furnishes school supplies, books, desks, 
etc. 

The children are selected by the school 
nurses. Each child is examined at the 
out-patients' department of the Boston 



56 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Consumptives' Hospital, and is admitted 
to the school only upon the evidence of 
tuberculosis. 

Since its reorganization the school has 
been enlarged and at present (June, 1910) 
there are some 110 children enrolled and 
five teachers are employed. The school is 
no longer an experiment; it is a demon- 
strated success. 

The school in Franklin Park has proved so 
successful and attracted so much favourable 
comment that the Boston School Committee 
requested its special advisory committee on 
school hygiene to report on the advisability 
of establishing open-air rooms generally, 
the type of such rooms and proper number 
of children for whom they vii^ould be desir- 
able. It was requested that the following 
points be covered : 

1. The method of selecting children need- 
ing to be placed in such rooms. 

2. The symptoms of such need that 
should be especially called to the attention of 
the teaching force. 

3. The sort of rooms that should be used 
for this purpose. 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 57 

4. Whether or not the windows of such 
rooms should be open all the time, and, if 
not, what exceptions should be made. 

5. What special clothing, if any, should 
be provided for children placed in these 
rooms. 

6. Whether or not there are teachers 
whose physical condition would be benefited 
by assignment to such rooms. 

7. Whether or not it would be desirable 
to have teachers and school nurses make 
special inquiry into the home conditions of 
children needing such treatment. 

The advisory committee reported that 
such "health-rooms" should not be con- 
fused with present provisions for the 
mentally deficient or the tuberculous (by 
no means generally established) and that 
a sharp distinction should be maintained 
between them. It felt that the "health- 
rooms" should be limited to those physically 
debilitated. Its recommendations, in brief, 
were as follows: 

The advisory committee is unanimously 
of the opinion that it is desirable to establish 
open-air rooms in school buildings for those 



58 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

children who are physically below normal 
in development. 

That in the establishment of such open- 
air rooms, sunlight, preferably direct sun- 
shine, as well as fresh open air, is necessary. 

That in the assignment of children to 
these special rooms, the medical inspectors, 
the school nurses, and the teachers should 
select those who are ansemic, who are 
undersized and below the normal weight 
for their height, those showing evidence 
of glandular enlargement, and those who 
return to school after a long convalescence 
from illness. 

In this connection the advisory committee 
wishes to emphasize the great value of 
weighing and measuring the school children, 
as this will furnish one of the most trust- 
worthy guides to the selection of those who 
are physically below normal. 

That in the present school buildings, at 
least in the overcrowded sections of the city, 
rooms suitable for the purpose of these 
classes should be located in the upper stories 
of the building with a southern exposure, 
in order to furnish the necessary maximum 
of sunlight without which any room of this 
type must be uncomfortable, cheerless, and 
lacking in a most essential quality. 

In buildings where the roof offers an 




The ferry-boat Southfield utilized for an open-air school 
in New York City 




The rest hour on the Southfield, New York City 




o 






"5- 

-si 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 59 

opportunity for outdoor use, shacks and 
otner provisions should be established to 
carry out the purpose of these recommenda- 
tions. The committee does not enter here 
into the details of this utilization of the 
roofs of school buildings, because it under- 
stands that a report dealing in a special 
manner with this phase of the problem 
is to form a separate communication from 
the advisory committee to the school com- 
mittee at an early date. 

The committee strongly recommends that 
in all future school buildings a room es- 
pecially adapted for the purpose herein out- 
lined shall be included in the plans and 
accepted by the school committee. Further 
details on this recommendation are also 
to form a part of the committee's special 
report. 

In special rooms designated as health- 
rooms to be established in buildings now 
in use, arrangements should be made for 
the widest use of open windows, in order 
that the maximum amount of fresh air may 
find access to every part of such rooms. 

That suitable protection for the feet and 
legs is necessary in all open-air schoolrooms. 
A sort of sleeping-bag, so called, is the most 
practical. 

The committee believes that there are 



60 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

undoubtedly teachers whose physical con- 
dition would be benefited by assignment 
to such rooms. 

That in the carrying out of the health 
measures herein outlined, the services of 
the school nurses are most valuable and 
would increase greatly in the homes the 
efficiency of the work undertaken in the 
schoolrooms for the health of the children. 

It will be noted that these open-air rooms 
are not to be for tuberculous children, but 
rather for those suffering from anaemia 
and malnutrition and those who are con- 
valescing from recent illnesses. The candi- 
dates for these classes are selected by the 
room teachers and nurses and submitted 
to the medical inspector for final decision. 
There are in the public schools of Boston 
90,000 children. The first selection of 
pupils for the open-air classes took place 
in the early part of the school year 1909-10 
when 5,043 children, or about 5J per cent, 
of the entire membership, were chosen by 
the teachers and nurses as requiring open-air 
treatment. When these children were re- 
examined by the school physicians the 



^ 




o 



?s 






CO 



PL, 





p^ 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 61 

decision was indorsed in the cases of 4,489 
of them, or almost 5 per cent, of the entire 
membership. 

These figures are especially interesting, for 
they are unique. They seem to indicate 
that in large cities about five per cent, of 
the school children are in such debilitated 
condition physically as to need such treat- 
ment as that afforded by special schools 
of the open-air type. 

NEW YORK CITY 

The first open-air school to be established 
in New York City under the auspices of the 
Department of Education was started in the 
outdoor camp for tuberculous patients 
maintained by Bellevue Hospital on the 
ferry-boat Southfield. There were among 
the patients a large number of children who 
were receiving open-air treatment on the 
ferry-boat. These children one day banded 
together and informed the doctor that they 
wanted to have a teacher and attend school. 

When this action was reported to the 
Board of Education, it was felt that so un- 



62 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

usual a plea should be given a prompt and 
favourable response, and in December, 
1908, the school on the ferry-boat was 
officially made an annex of Public School 
Number 14. 

Except for its unusual location the school 
on the ferry-boat does not differ greatly 
from the other open-air schools which have 
been described. The teacher is paid and 
the school supplies are furnished by the 
Board of Education. The children are 
fed and necessary clothing is provided by 
the hospital authorities. The school is, of 
necessity, an ungraded one, and the number 
of children taught by one teacher is kept 
in the neighbourhood of thirty. 

So successful has the school on the South- 
field proved that four more open-air schools 
have been established — three on the ferry- 
boats Westfield, Middletown, and Sus" 
quehanna, and one on the roof of the 
Vanderbilt Clinic, at Sixtieth Street. Offi- 
cially, these open-air schools are all consid- 
ered to be annexes of regular public schools 
in the vicinity. 

On October 29, 1909, the Board of Es- 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 63 

timate and Apportionment granted the sum 
of $6,500 to the Board of Education for the 
purpose of remodelling rooms in some of 
the school buildings for use by open-air 
classes. On December 22, 1909, Dr. Wil- 
liam H. Maxwell, Superintendent of Schools, 
called a conference of medical and school 
authorities to decide how the rooms should 
be remodelled to fit them for their new use, 
what furniture and equipment should be 
supplied, and how children for the new 
classes should be chosen. 

As a result of this conference it was 
decided that the maximum number of chil- 
dren who should be admitted to any one 
open-air class should be limited to twenty- 
five. The children are to be chosen by the 
director of the tuberculosis clinic nearest 
the school and by the school principal. No 
child is to be assigned to the open-air class 
until the permission of the parents has been 
secured in writing. Children are to be 
discharged from open-air classes by the 
admitting physician on the recommenda- 
tion of the principal. Children moving 
from one district to another are to be fol- 



64 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

lowed up and taken care of in the new dis- 
trict. No rule was adopted defining the 
exact physical condition in which a child 
must be in order to be considered a proper 
subject for open-air treatment. It was 
decided that each case shall be considered 
separately, and that the only definite rule 
to be observed is that no open cases of tuber- 
culosis shall be received in these classes. 

It was agreed at the conference that the 
intakes of the regular ventilation system 
shall be cut off, and hand control of tem- 
perature prevail, and that, further, the mini- 
mum temperature allowed in the room shall 
be 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Every room is 
to be provided with twenty movable and 
adjustable desks and chairs, and the same 
number of regular chairs, and the windows 
are to be provided with Venetian blinds. 
The rooms used for open-air classes are, 
whenever possible, to be located on the 
third floor of the building, in order that 
they may be above the dust level of the 
street. 

In these open-air rooms the teachers, 
school supplies, clothing, robes, caps, foot- 




April, 1910, New York established its first open-air class 
in a public school building at P. S. 21, Manhattan. Out- 
door classes are held on the sheltered roof, while the open 
windows of the classroom may be seen on the left 




The classroom tent of the first Chicago school 




^»^ai 



Tent interior, Chicago 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 65 

warmers, scales, and other equipment are 
to be provided by the Board of Education, 
while the food is to be supplied by the Com- 
mittee on the Prevention of Tuberculosis 
of the Charity Organization Society. 

The first of these open-air classes was 
established in April, 1910, in School Number 
21, at Mott and Elizabeth Streets. The 
organization of these open-air classes has 
awakened great popular interest in New 
York City, and it is probably a direct result 
of this interest that in April, 1910, Park 
Commissioner Stover announced that he had 
decided to grant special privileges which 
would permit children of the kindergarten 
classes of the public schools to pursue their 
studies in the open air during the pleasant 
weather in Central Park and the other 
parks of Manhattan. 

CHICAGO 

Chicago's first outdoor school for tuber- 
culous children was made possible through 
the joint cooperation of the Board of 
Education and the Chicago Tuberculosis 



66 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Institute. The school was opened during 
the first week of August, 1909, on the 
grounds of one of the pubHc schools. The 
buildings, equipment and teaching staff 
were furnished hj the Board of Education, 
while the selection of the children, food 
supply, cook, nurse, and medical service 
were assumed by the Tuberculosis Institute. 
A large shelter tent and thirty reclining 
chairs were secured for outdoor use, and a 
range, cooking utensils, table-ware, kitchen 
and dining-room tables, and icebox were 
installed in the basement of the school build- 
ing. The principal and two teachers were 
supplied by the Board of Education. 

The Tuberculosis Institute placed one 
of its nurses on half-time attendance at the 
school to watch the temperature, weight, 
pulses, and general condition of the pupils. 
Of the thirty children chosen for the experi- 
ment, seventeen had pulmonary tuberculo- 
sis in its first stages, two had tuberculous 
glands, and eleven were pronounced pre- 
tuberculous. None had passed to the 
"open" infection stage, but two-thirds of 
them showed a temperature range from 




«=- Xi 



3 



a, 
o 

u 

a, 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 67 

99 to 100.2 on admittance. The school 
was open for one month, and during that 
time the daily programmie was similar to 
those already described in the cases of out- 
door schools in other cities. The children 
received plenty of fresh air, good food, 
rest, and common-sense school work. 

The results of this short experiment were 
thoroughly satisfactory. The children 
made marked gain in weight, and practically 
all showed normal temperature. The gen- 
eral condition was greatly improved. 

The experiment attracted a great deal of 
attention and discussion in the city, and there 
were many who thought that while it was 
all very well as a warm-weather enterprise 
it could never be conducted during the 
colder months. It seemed to those who 
had the interests of the new school at heart 
that it was very desirable to convince these 
doubters that open-air schools could be 
successfully conducted all the year round. 
This was made possible by a grant made 
by the trustees of the Elizabeth McCormick 
Memorial Fund to the United Charities. 

Again in cooperation with the Board of 



68 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Education the new school was started in 
the fall of 1909 on the roof of the Mary 
Crane Nursery Building. This measures 
about 40 by 70 feet. A portion of this 
place measuring about 30 by 50 feet has 
been enclosed by a fence made of wire 
netting, and in the enclosure there has been 
erected a sort of permanent tent made of 
asbestos board so that it is fireproof and 
can withstand wind and storm. The win- 
dows about the sides lift, so that there is an 
open zone around the tent. In fair weather 
the children take their rest hour in the 
open. Meals are served in the dining room 
two floors below, and the daily bath is taken 
in bathrooms in the building proper. 

This was probably the only school in 
the city of Chicago where the boys and 
girls refused to take a vacation during the 
last Christmas holidays. It is reported 
that they all came back asking that the 
school go on during the vacation time, and 
their request was granted. 

In Chicago the experiment of the open- 
air school has resulted in the development 
of still another type of education in the open 




A classroom is used as a dinino-rooiu at Rochester 




Handwork is a prominent feature in the Rochester school 




o 



3 
o 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 69 

air. The principal who had charge of the 
open-air school which was maintained dur- 
ing the summer of 1909 continued experi- 
menting in his own building after the regular 
school year opened. Beginning in the early 
fall he regularly left the windows of two 
schoolrooms wide open and continued the 
work with a much lower temperature than 
that commonly maintained in schoolhouses. 
These open-air schoolrooms are not de- 
signed for tuberculous children or for any 
other class. The experiment was based 
on the feeling that what is good for the 
debilitated and unsuccessful might reason- 
ably be supposed to benefit bright and 
normal pupils. When necessary, the chil- 
dren in these fresh-air rooms retain their 
outdoor wraps. The temperature is not 
allowed to drop to the freezing point, but 
it is kept much lower than that of the other 
rooms. The regular school seats and desks 
have been replaced by chairs and tables, 
and the children are encouraged to take 
much more exercise in the shape of play 
than is permitted by the traditional school 
regime. 



70 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

So far the results of this experiment have 
been encouraging. A physical examination 
of the pupils was held after eight weeks 
of fresh-air instruction. The test was made 
on the proposition that the child with a 
stopped or running nose is handicapped 
in his efforts to learn. Among the ninety 
pupils in the two rooms two were found 
with running noses. In the next two rooms 
warmed in the usual manner, there were 
found forty cases of nasal discharge. The 
evidence in favour of the open-air treatment 
could scarcely be more striking. 

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 

In the summer of 1909 the Hartford 
Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis 
established a camp and an outdoor school 
in one of the city parks. Forty-one children 
were admitted during the summer. They 
were mostly frail and anaemic and weighed 
on the average eleven pounds below the 
normal weight for their age. The children 
who remained in the camp nine weeks or 
over gained on the average six pounds 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 71 

during that time, while a marked improve- 
ment was shown in the condition of those 
who remained for a shorter period. 

In view of the favourable results obtained, 
the city granted an appropriation to support 
the work, and in the first week of January, 
1910, the open-air school held its first session 
in a tent near a leased building used for 
evening and vacation schools. The school 
is supported by the city school department 
and the Society for the Prevention of Tuber- 
culosis in cooperation. The city pays for 
instruction and equipment, and the Society 
provides warm clothing and the necessary 
meals. 

The school has an inexpensive and excel- 
lent plant. It has a house for indoor sleep- 
ing in case of too severe weather, and a large 
army tent with desks on its board floor as 
its schoolroom. The enrolment is between 
thirty and forty, and there is a head teacher 
and an assistant teacher. 

In the first ten weeks the school accom- 
plished some splendid results. The average 
gain in weight was five pounds. The gain 
in disposition toward study and play was 



72 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

notable and the children easily kept up 
with their regular school classes. 

OTHER CITIES 

At least one more open-air school has been 
established by a department of education. 
This school was opened in the city of 
Rochester, New York, in October, 1909. 
There is so far little available information 
concerning this school. 

There is at least one open-air school 
being supported entirely from private funds. 
This is located in Pittsburgh and it was 
started in February, 1909, by the Civic 
Club of that city. The school is located 
on one of the porches of the Pittsburgh 
Sanatorium. 



RESULTS 



CHAPTER V 



RESULTS 



FROM a physical point of view, the 
testimony as to the results of open- 
air schools is all on one side. From 
Germany, England and America come 
unqualified endorsements with scarcely a 
dissenting note. 

The report of the work in the Char- 
lottenburg school tells us that the 
physical results were decidedly satisfac- 
tory. This is proved, first, by the 
improved general appearance of the 
children, and, secondly, by the results 
of individual physical examinations. After 
a few weeks a great improvement in the 
general condition of the children was 
manifested with regard to appetite, atten- 
tion, general temperament and appear- 
ance. The final medical examination at 

75 



76 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

the end of three months gave the follow- 
ing results: 

Aggravated Unchanged Improved Cured 

Anaemia . . 1 9 11 13 

(34 children) 

Scrofulous diseases — 8 22 8 

(38 children) 

Heart diseases — 7 7 — 

(14 children) 

Pulmonary diseases 18 8 4 

(21 children) — — — — 

Total (107 children) 2 32 48 25 

The table shows that among one hundred 
seven cases the results of the school was a 
decided improvement or complete cure in 
seventy-three cases. 

To these favourable results must be added 
the increase in weight shown by the children. 
On the average this was between six and 
seven pounds a child, or, roughly, about 
one-half a pound per week. Many chil- 
dren increased by eight pounds, and eleven 
of them showed increases of between eleven 
and eighteen pounds. 

It was also shown that the children's 
powers of resistance had been greatly 



RESULTS 77 

enhanced by their life in the open air, so 
that, although the month of October was 
exceptionally cold and wet, none of the 
children suffered from colds or similar 
indispositions. From a medical point of 
view these favourable results have been 
attained by the simplest means; namely, 
being constantly in the open air, the action 
of sunlight, baths, simple but regular food, 
and school instruction diminished both 
in the number of hours and in the number 
of pupils to a teacher. 

The testimony from the other German 
schools is similar to that from Charlotten- 
burg. The results of the Miilhausen experi- 
ment have been very satisfactory. The 
children have increased in weight and 
improved in strength, energy, and mental 
alertness. 

The first reports from Munchen-Gladbach 
cover only the short period of two months, 
but even this short session worked wonders 
with the children as regards increase in 
weight, improved appearance, and bodily 
and mental activity. 

It has already been stated that in 



78 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

establishing the school at Bostall Wood 
the London County Council had in view 
two objects: first, to benefit the chil- 
dren physically, and, secondly, to prevent 
educational loss while they were under- 
going special treatment. It is beyond ques- 
tion that the school attained both of these 
objects. Physical improvement was shown 
by their greater muscular ability and 
enhanced physical and mental endurance. 
During the thirteen weeks that the school 
was in session the children gained on the 
average six and a half pounds apiece in 
weight. As in the case of the Charlotten- 
burg work this is equal to half a pound per 
week per child. The greatest increase 
was nearly fourteen pounds. In the case 
of the London children the increase was 
greatest during the latter part of the time, 
averaging during the last four weeks nearly 
one pound per week per child. It is note- 
worthy that both in the Bostall Wood school 
and the one at Charlottenburg the increase 
in weight amounted on the average to one 
half a pound per child each week, although 
in the case of Charlottenburg the children 



RESULTS 79 

received five meals a day and did much less 
work and walking than did the London 
children. 

How the children improved in weight is 
impressively shown in the case of some of 
the individuals. For example, Kathleen 
M — , aged eleven, was a very ansemic 
child. When she was admitted to the 
school during the second week she weighed 
a little less than sixty-eight and a half 
pounds. She gained weight steadily and 
rapidly until the seventh week, when she 
weighed seventy-seven pounds. During the 
eighth week she was absent and lost nearly 
a pound in weight. Upon returning to 
School she immediately began to regain the 
lost ground, and when weighed again at the 
end of the tenth week had attained a weight 
of nearly eighty pounds. The history of 
the case is shown in the diagram in which 
the heavy line shows the increase in weight 
from week to week. The falling off caused 
by the absence during the eighth week is 
noticeable. It would be hard to get more 
convincing evidence of the value of the 
outdoor schools. 



80 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 



Lbs 


¥ E K. r 8 

1 2 ^ ij. «5 6 7 « q 10 


79 

77 
76 

73 
72 
71 
70 

69 
6<< 




















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J 












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i 


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1 



Chart I. Variations in weight of Kathleen M — , Bostall Wood 
Open-air School. Note decrease during eighth week when 
she was absent 



RESULTS 



81 



The case of Kathleen M — was by no 
means exceptional. Many of the other 
children showed similar histories. A similar 



Lbs' 
if5 

Mf 


f_E E K.S 
-I 2 3 If «i 6-7 i q 10^ 








r 


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^3 
39 








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No- 
V 














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Chart II. Varirtions in weight of Arthur W — , Bostall Wood 
Open-air School. Note decrease during sixth week when 
he was absent. 

chart shows how Arthur W — increased 
rapidly in weight from the first to the fifth 
week, lost severely during the sixth week, 



82 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

when he was absent, and upon returning to 
school regained much of the lost ground. 

Convincing evidence as to the effect of 
the school life on nutrition is furnished by 
the results of the haemoglobin test. The 
red colour of the blood is due to the presence 
in the red blood corpuscles of a chemical 
substance known as haemoglobin. This 
substance plays an importantpart in carrying 
the oxygen from the air in the lungs to all 
the tissues of the body, and the proportion 
in which it is present in the blood is a 
valuable indicator of the degree of anaemia 
present and the condition of the child's 
health. 

The improvement produced in this respect 
is most interesting. The haemoglobin test 
showed the percentage among the boys 
on admission was 74.8, the normal per- 
centage being 100. Five weeks later the 
percentage among the same boys was 80.1, 
an increase of 5.3. The percentage among 
the girls upon admission was 75.6. Five 
weeks later it was 81.2, an increase 
of 5.6. 

Results in the Thackley open-air school 



RESULTS 83 

maintained by the city of Bradford for 
nine weeks during the fall of 1908 are 
fully as convincing and consistent as those 
already discussed. The report of the school 
speaks in glowing terms of the improve- 
ment of the children in appearance, expres- 
sion, and alertness. 

A summary of the results with respect 
to increase in weight, haemoglobin per- 
centage, and chest measurement offers 
convincing testimony of the value of the 
work: 

BOYS 

Number 19 

Ages 7 to 11 years 

Average age . . . . . 8.7 years 

Average weight on admis- 
sion . . . . . . 43.25 lbs. 

Average weight nine weeks 

later ...... 46.25 lbs. 

Average increase ... 3 lbs. 

Average haemoglobin per- 
centage on admission . 78 

Average haemoglobin per- 
centage nine weeks later . 88 

Average increase in haemo- 
globin percentage . . 10 



84 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 



Average chest measurement 
at full inspiration on ad- 
mission 

Average chest measurement 
at full inspiration nine 
weeks later .... 

Average increase in chest 
measurement .... 



23.3 inches 

24.3 inches 
1 inch 



GIRLS 

Number 21 

Ages . . . . . . . 7 to 12 years 

Average age 8.5 years 

Average weight on admis- 
sion 44.5 lbs. 

Average weight nine weeks 

later 50.2 lbs. 

Average increase .... 5.7 lbs. 

Average haemoglobin per^ 

centage on admission . . 80 

Average haemoglobin per- 
centage nine weeks later . 90 

Average increase in haemo- 
globin percentage . . 10 

Average cnest measurement 
at full inspiration on ad- 
mission 23 inches 

Average chest measurement 
at full inspiration nine 
weeks later .... 24 inches 



RESULTS 85 

Average increase in chest 

measurement .... 1 inch 

In general the children gained weight 
very rapidly during the first four weeks 
and then somewhat less rapidly during the 
succeeding five weeks. The school was 
closed on the thirtieth of October. The 
records of the children showed that in the 
next two weeks they fell off sharply in 
weight and then started slowly to gain again. 
The whole story is shown graphically in the 
following chart in which the average weekly 
gain is shown by the heavy black line. It 
will be noted that it rises steadily and 
rapidly during the month of September, 
continues to rise, but more slowly, during 
October, and then falls off sharply after 
the school is closed. 

The heavy dotted line indicates roughly 
the approximate average increase which 
takes place in the schools of Bradford in 
the case of similar children under ordinary 
conditions. The notable feature is, of 
course, how much more rapid the gain is 
under the healthful conditions imposed by 
the outdoor school. 



86 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 



LBS 

5 
2 

1 


m, 


3€ 


ptembfl 


r 


Ocl 


Ol}< 


jr 


Movembar 
















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C 

/ 


lOi 


lOl 

led 

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f 


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V 


X 


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Chart III. Showing the average weekly gain or loss in weight 
of children attending the Bradford Open-air School in 1908. The 
dotted line shows the average increase which takes place in the 
case of children under ordinary conditions. 



RESULTS 87 

Turning now to America we find it much 
more difficult to secure definite accounts 
in quantitative terms of the results of the 
outdoor school work. In general the 
records in our schools have not been so 
carefully kept, nor are they so full in scope, 
as the foreign ones. 

In Chicago the first outdoor school was 
opened for tuberculous children on August 
3, 1909, and was kept open for one month. 
There were thirty children in attendance, 
seventeen of whom were above normal asre 
for the grades they were in. The results 
of this short experiment were as follows : 

The total gain in weight for the thirty 
children was one hundred thirteen and a 
half pounds, the range being from one to 
seven pounds. 

When the children were admitted to the 
school twenty of them showed a tem- 
perature ranging from 99 to 100.2 degrees. 
On discharge only two showed tempera- 
tures above 99 degrees, while all the rest 
were practically normal. 

The general condition of all was 
improved. 



88 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

Principal William E. Watt of the Graham 
School has the following to say about the 
results of the cold-air-room experiment 
already described: 

"The children are delighted to breathe 
pure air all day in school and out. They 
are not compelled to stay in the room, but 
there are many more clamouring to get in. 
It has been a most successful experiment. 
Pupils have been cured of catarrh, swollen 
glands have been reduced to normal size, 
and tubercular symptoms have disappeared. 
Their resistance to disease has been raised, 
and they are much more healthy." 

One most impressive set of definite data 
has been gathered from the record cards 
of the children in the Providence school. 
This school was opened in January, 1907^ 
and individual records of the pupils have 
been kept continuously up to the present 
time. One portion of these records con- 
sists of the results of the haemoglobin 
tests. How these have fluctuated for 
the entire class for a period of a year and 
a half is shown graphically in the following 
diagram : 



RESULTS 



89 



The diagram shows that when the school 
opened in January the haemoglobin per- 
centage was a little less than 74. The 





C.Q U "U >« §M 8> p.-t» > OC.O Sl^tH 


•^ 


i2 
to 

76 

1^ 










j 




















n 




/ 


r 








1 


1 


c 
1 


\ 

\ 
\ 
\ 
















/ 


/ 










/ 


1 






o 

01 












/ 


/ 


f 










y 


/ 










1 

\ 
\ 
\ 

\ 

\ 






/ 


/ 


f 












y 


/ 














\ 
I 


/ 


















/ 





































Chart IV. Haemoglobin tests, Providence Open-air School, 
1908-1909. Average for class. Note falling off during vacation. 

solid line shows how this percentage rose 
steadily until it almost reached 84 at the 
close of the school year in June. Then the 



90 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

children went to their homes for the long 
summer vacation, and the dotted line shows 
how their haemoglobin percentage fell dur- 
ing that time until it almost reached the 
74-per-cent. level again. When the open- 
air classes began again in September the 
haemoglobin percentage began to rise, nearly 
reaching the 79-per-cent. level by the end of 
January and climbing almost to 84 per cent, 
by the close of the year in June. 

These results are not entirely definite and 
trustworthy for the reason that they do not 
show conditions among exactly the same 
group of children during the entire period 
covered. Some of the original children 
dropped out during the first year, and their 
places .were taken by other children who 
entered later, and whose records are 
included in the average results shown in the 
chart. Nevertheless, an examination of the 
individual records shows that in general the 
average results among the same individuals 
are similar to the results for the entire class 
as shown in the diagram. The record is 
consistent in its essential agreement with 
those already cited. Physical gains are 



RESULTS 91 

shown to be rapid and constant while the 
pupils are in attendance. Their losses 
when they are absent are immediate and 
marked, and upon returning their gains 
begin at once. 

In an account of the Providence out- 
door school by Walter H. Small, then 
Superintendent of Schools of that city, 
published in the Journal of Outdoor Life 
for March, 1909, the results are summed up 
in the following concluding paragraph: 

"More visitors have called upon this 
school than any other in the city. Begun 
as an experiment, it has proved its worth 
and is not now experimental. Arranged 
for twenty pupils, it contains all grades, 
from the beginning to the highest elemen- 
tary grade. Not all grades are present at 
once. The school enrolment is varying 
and the work is necessarily individual. 
Each does what he can; he is not urged; 
but he sits in the sun, keeps healthfully 
busy, drinks in fresh air, and grows stronger 
physically and more alert mentally. To 
see the colour come into the cheeks and the 
sparkle into the eye and to see the ema- 
ciated form fill out convinces those close 
to the work that it pays abundantly." 



92 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

In the school maintained for tuberculous 
children in Franklin Park in Boston the 
medical results were most satisfactory. Up 
to June 14, 1909, forty-one children had 
been at the school for one month or more. 
Twenty-three of them had had their tuber- 
cular processes arrested and had returned to 
the regular public schools, and in each case 
without loss in their school work. Of 
the twenty-three arrested cases all except 
two are known to be well now and 
present no physical signs in the lungs. 

From an educational point of view the 
results have also been most satisfactory. 
The children became more alert mentally 
and showed considerable increase in atten- 
tion to work. They improved in appear- 
ance, were neater and cleaner, had better 
manners and were more orderly, and their 
parents remarked these changes. 

Another set of results from Boston comes 
from the Prescott School where an open- 
air class numbering about twenty was con- 
ducted during the spring months of 1907. 
This class was made up of thin, pale, and 
anaemic children of the fourth and fifth 




Garden work was popular at Bostall Wood 




Halifax, England. The children help in such tasks as 
cleaning cutlery 



RESULTS 93 

grades who were members of overcrowded 
classes and had been repeatedly absent. 
These children were removed from the 
regular classrooms and given portable desks 
in a corner of the schoolyard. 

They gained rapidly in weight, mental 
alertness, and physical condition. These 
gains are reflected by the improvement in 
attendance which was brought about as a 
result of the open-air regime. During the 
month of February the average per cent, 
of attendance among these children, then 
members of the regular indoor classes, was 
71, and in March it was 72. During the 
month of April the children were removed 
from the regular classrooms to the open-air 
class, and the per cent, of attendance in- 
creased to 75. In the month of May it 
jumped to 90, and reached 92 per cent, in 
June. This marked improvement follow- 
ing the organization of the open-air class 
is graphically shown in the diagram. 

One of the most remarkable results of 
all of the open-air schools has been the 
demonstration of the fact that many of 
the ordinary classroom subjects can be 



94 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 



taught more efficiently in the open air. 
This is brought about through intelligently 
seizing the unique opportunities offered 



Hay 



June! 
92^ 



Teb. 

Hi 



VaLVeh 



April 



Attendance in Prescott School, Boston, in 1907, of same class during 
two and a haK months indoors and two and a half months outdoors. 



Indoors 



CI] 



Outdoors 



by the immediate environment of the school 
as working material for imparting knowl- 
edge. For example, in Charlottenburg in 



RESULTS 95 

teaching arithmetic the children are pro- 
vided first of all with tape measures and 
are encouraged to use them as much as 
possible. They measure the ground and 
various objects, count the trees, calculate 
spaces, etc. Every effort is made to avoid 
the mere manipulation of figures and to 
bring the arithmetical instruction in touch 
with actual conditions and dimensions. 

The teaching of geography greatly bene- 
fits by outdoor methods. Relief maps are 
constructed in sand, the configuration of 
the surrounding country explained, moun- 
tain ranges made to scale, and almost all 
geographical definitions suitably illustrated. 
The action of running water upon river- 
banks, the carriage of suspended mineral 
matter by rivers, the silting up of river-beds, 
the formation of deltas, the causes of floods, 
the means of irrigation, are brought home 
to the children's minds with the greatest 
ease. 

The lives of plants, animals, and insects 
are shown almost from birth to death, and 
the children are trained to study and observe 
but not to destroy harmless animals and 



96 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

insect life. The decomposition of rocks 
and the formation of soils are studied at 
first hand. In connection with nature 
study a large amount of weather observa- 
tions and study of the heavens are also 
carried on. 

The children are taught to look upon 
themselves as a large family and are trained 
to exercise all the virtues necessary for 
ordered life in the communities. It is 
impressed upon them that school buildings 
and grounds have been loaned to them for 
their benefit and that they must restore 
them in the same condition that they found 
them so other children may receive the same 
advantages. 



FEEDING 



CHAPTER VI 

FEEDING 

THOSE who have had in charge the 
organization and administration of 
open-air schools have almost without excep- 
tion agreed that one of the most important 
factors in successful work of this type is 
wholesome and adequate feeding. As to 
just how this feeding shall be carried out 
there is considerable diversity of opinion 
and practice. 

In Germany the best practice sanctions 
frequent feeding amounting almost to what 
is termed forced feeding. Five meals a 
day are regularly given. 

The daily routine in Charlottenburg is 
as follows: The children arrive at about a 
quarter to eight and receive a bowl of soup 
and a slice of bread and butter. Classes 
commence at eight with an interval of five 
minutes after every half -hour's instruction. 
I ; ' 99 



100 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

At ten o'clock the children receive one or two 
glasses of milk and another slice of bread and 
butter. Dinner is served at half-past twelve 
and consists of about three ounces of meat 
with vegetables and soup. After dinner the 
children rest or sleep for two hours. At four 
o'clock milk, rye bread, and jam are given. 
The last meal consists of soup and bread and 
butter and is given at a quarter to seven after 
which the children return home. The ex- 
penditure for the feeding amounts to about 
twelve cents per day per child. Poor chil- 
dren are excused from paying, and the others 
pay in full or in part according to the circum- 
stances of their parents. 

At Miilhausen four meals a day are pro- 
vided; the hours being eight and ten-thirty 
A.M. and one and six p.m. 

In the Gladbach school the children are 
given breakfast, lunch, supper, and half a 
pint of milk. Lunch consists of soup, meat, 
and two vegetables. The expenditure per 
day per child amounts to about fourteen 
cents. The food is supplied from a neigh- 
bouring sanatorium, which makes it much 
cheaper than it would otherwise be. 







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FEEDING 101 

The same plan is followed in the school 
at Elberf eld, where the food is supplied from 
a neighbouring convalescent home. The 
children receive five meals a day, which 
include one quart of milk per child. The 
expenditure for feeding amounts to some- 
thing less than sixteen cents a day per 
child. It is borne partly by the parents 
and partly by the charitable organization 
which man ages the convalescent home. 

When the first English school was opened 
at Bostall Wood it was decided that the 
children should be supplied with three good 
meals a day. The food was prepared at a 
cookery centre about a quarter of a mile 
from the Wood. The children received 
breakfast at nine a.m. immediately after 
arriving; dinner at half-past twelve; bis- 
cuits and fruit at three-thirty; and tea at 
five-thirty. The dietary was as follows: 

BREAKFAST ON ARRIVAL 

Oatmeal porridge (medium Scotch meal) 

Syrup 

Milk, i pint 



102 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

DINNER AT 12 :30 P.M. 

Meat (4 ozs.) ; fish occasionally 
Potatoes (6 ozs.) 
Green vegetables in quantity 
Pudding (6 ozs.) in rotation: 
Suet pudding and treacle 
Milk pudding 

Stewed fruit, or fruit in batter, or boiled 
rice 

3:30 P.M. 

Fruit or biscuit 

TEA, 4:45 TO 5:15 P.M. 

Weak tea (mostly milk) 
Bread and butter 
Jam or syrup twice a week 
Cake, or currant bread and butter, twice a 
week 

The good conduct of the children at meal- 
times was particularly noticeable. Before 
the close of the term they acquired a taste 
for good food and such diet as oatmeal 
porridge and green vegetables, which they 
were not accustomed to and refused to eat 
during the opening days of the experiment. 



FEEDING 103 

At the Thackley school at Bradford only 
three meals a day were provided. The 
physician in charge did not approve of the 
German practice of supplying food more 
frequently. For breakfast at nine o'clock 
the children had porridge, syrup, half a 
pint of milk, brown or white bread and 
butter. The first morning many of the 
children refused to eat the porridge or 
would take only a mouthful or two. In a 
few mornings, however, it was enjoyed by 
practically all of them. Dinner came at 
12:30 and was cooked on the premises. 
The menu varied from day to day, the first 
and second courses being chosen from 
among the following: 

First Course — Scotch barley broth; to- 
mato soup; meat and potato hash; Shep- 
herd's pie, gravy and green peas (or 
carrots and turnips) ; Yorkshire pudding, 
with gravy and green peas ; cottage pie (meat 
and potato, with crust) and green peas; 
stewed beef, with onions, carrots and tur- 
nips; stewed fish, parsley sauce, mashed 
potatoes and green peas. 

Second Course — Sultana or jam roly- 
poly pudding; fruit tart; baked currant pud- 



104 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

ding and sweet sauce; baked jam roll; 
boiled fruit pudding (plum or apple) ; milk 
pudding in variety with stew^ed fruit ; boiled 
rice and sultanas ; cornflour blancmange. 

Tea at 5 p.m. consisted of milk (J pint) ; 
bread (brown or white); butter or jam; 
wholemeal cake occasionally. 

American practice up to the present time 
has differed little from that of the English 
and German schools. In the open-air 
school maintained in Chicago during the 
summer of 1909 the children reached the 
school at 8:30 a.m. Their first duty was 
to give their faces and hands a thorough 
washing. Breakfast was served at nine 
o'clock in the school basement. This con- 
sisted of well-cooked cereal or shredded 
wheat, eggs in some form, bread, butter, 
milk, and often some kind of fruit. At first 
liberal amounts of cream were given with the 
breakfast food, but experience soon showed 
that too much cream was unpopular. It 
was a new article of diet and the children 
did not like it. In this as well as in other 
articles of diet it was found that the simple 



FEEDING 105 

foods, well cooked and nutritious such as 
had come under their range of experience 
at home, were far more acceptable than a 
more elaborate bill of fare. 

At 10:45 in the forenoon refreshment of 
milk or eggnog was served. At first raw 
eggs were tried, but after a near-revolt on 
the part of the children various devices 
were practised to disguise the taste of the 

At 12:30 came dinner, which was the 
heavy meal of the day, usually consisting 
of meat or fish, potatoes and one other 
vegetable followed by pudding, fruits, 
cookies or some other sweets. 

At three o'clock came the mid-afternoon 
refreshment of milk or eggnog, and at five 
o'clock supper was served, consisting of 
bread and butter, scrambled eggs or some 
similar food, custards or stewed fruit. The 
cost for feeding, including three meals and 
two refreshments per day, was just under 
thirty cents per day per child. 

At the Providence school no attempt at 
full feeding is made. The children arrive 
at the school at nine in the morning and 



106 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

the session closes at 2:30 in the afternoon. 
At 10:30 they have a recess during which 
they are given hot soup. At twelve o'clock 
they are all seated about tables, eat whatever 
lunch they have brought and in addition 
are given a hot pudding such as tapioca 
or rice served with cream and hot chocolate 
or cocoa made with milk. The menu for 
one week was as follows: 

Monday — 10:30, beef soup with rice. 
12: pudding, cream of wheat, 3 quarts of 
milk, 6 eggs, served with cream; chocolate, 
all milk. 

Tuesday — 10:30, beef soup with maca- 
roni. 12: pudding, tapioca, 2 quarts of 
milk, 6 eggs, whipped cream; chocolate, 
all milk. 

Wednesday — 10:30, tomato bisque soup. 
12: rice pudding, 3 quarts milk, 6 eggs, 
served with cream; chocolate, all milk. 

Thursday — 10:30, beef soup with 
vegetables. 12:00, baked farina pudding, 3 
quarts of milk, 6 eggs, cream; chocolate, 
all milk. 

Friday — 10 :30, pea soup. 12 :00, prune 
pudding, 3 quarts milk, 6 eggs, served with 
cream; cocoa, all milk. 




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FEEDING 107 

The school maintained in Boston during 
1908-9 was of a distinctly different type from 
the one at Providence. Boston's school 
was for tubercular children. They were 
present several hours longer than were the 
Providence children and a much more 
definite attempt was made to supply them 
with complete and adequate meals. The 
daily routine with respect to feeding was as 
follows: The children arrived at the school 
at 8:30 and had breakfast. After break- 
fast all but four were ready to begin les- 
sons. These four, remaining in the dining 
room, cleared the tables, washed and dried 
the dishes, etc. At 12 :30 dinner was served, 
and again the children helped to set 
and wait on the table. At 4:30 a light 
supper was served, and at five o'clock 
the children returned home. Cleanliness 
was insisted upon, and one of the rules 
of the school was that faces and hands 
must be washed before and teeth brushed 
after each meal. The diet was a simple 
one and so planned as to give variety 
and the proper amount of the different 
food constituents. The following are two 



108 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 



simple menus with their approximate food 
value : 

BREAKFAST 

Cocoa, bread and butter, sliced banana. 

LUNCHEON 

Stew of rice and mutton, bread and butter, 
milk, dessert, figs. 



SUPPER 



Milk, gingerbread. 





Amt. 
ozs. 


Proteid 


Fat 


Carbo- 
hydrate 


Calories 


Cocoa ( 2 cups ) . 


18 


19.06 


23.42 


37.86 


451.17 


Bread .... 


4 


10.5 


1.3 


59.7 


301. 


Butter .... 


1 


.24 


28.7 




221. 


Banana ( 1 ) . . 


3-4 


.85 


.42 


15.2 


77.18 


Rice and mutton . 


10 


46.8 


29.2 


37. 


619. 


Bread .... 


2 


5.2 


.06 


29.8 


150. 


Figs (3) . . . 


2 


2.61 


.18 


45.11 




Milk ( 3 glasses ) . 


26 


24.93 


30.22 


37.77 


532. 


Gingerbread . . 


2 


5.22 


5.73 


40.3 


235.6 




68 


115.41 


119.23 


302.74 


2589.95 



BREAKFAST 

Cocoa, Graham gems, butter, stewed prunes. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed codfish, mashed potato, bread, 
milk, dates and nuts. 




Dinner time at the Franklin Park School, Boston 




Lunch hour at Hartford 




Dinner hour on the Southfield, New York City 



FEEDING 



109 



SUPPER 

Milk, crackers, and cream cheese. 



Cocoa ( 2 cups ) 
Bread . . . 
Butter . . . 
Graham gems . 
( Dry ) priuies . 
Creamed codfish 
Mashed potato 
Peanuts in shells 
Dates (6) . . 
Crackers . . 
Cheese . . . 
Milk (3 glasses) 



Amt. 
ozs. 



Proteid 



Fat 



Carbo- 
hydrate 



Calories 



18 
2 
1 

4 
1 
4 
4 



261 



19.06 
5.2 

.24 
7.5 
.4 
19. 
3. 
7. 

.31 

4.64 

4.22 

24.93 



.06 
23.7 
3. 

9. 
5. 

10.5 
.8 
3.2 
5.49 

30.22 



37.86 

25.8 

44. 
17.05 
19.9 
18. 
6.7 
24.78 
33.8 

.39 
37.77 



451.17 
150. 
221. 
245.3 

71.9 
265. 
125. 
155. 
111.4 
186.8 

69.9 
532. 



66 



95.50 114.39 270.05 2584.47 



In addition to the meals taken at the 
school, the children have milk and bread, 
or cereal and milk, or sometimes an egg 
before leaving home in the morning, and 
again a light meal on their return home 
at night. This brings the total fuel value 
of the food eaten during the day up to about 
3,000 calories, which is probably high for 
a normal child, but not for these tubercular 
children. 



COST 



CHAPTER VII 

COST 

IT IS Impossible to make a definite gen- 
eral statement as to the cost involved 
in the establishment of an open-air school 
because so much depends on local circum- 
stances. In some places the question of a 
site may be a somewhat serious one. In 
England and Germany it is felt that it is 
almost necessary to have the school some 
distance away from the city or town and 
yet at the same time to have it easily 
reached by electric-car lines. If the same 
practice were followed in this country it 
would almost invariably involve a consider- 
able search and decided expense. It must be 
remembered, moreover, that, whatever the 
outlay may be, it is always in addition to what 
is already being spent for school purposes, 
as no other schools or classes are closed 
because an open-air school is established. 

113 



114 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

The cost of maintaining the school as com- 
pared with the cost of an ordinary school 
will largely depend on how far food, cloth- 
ing and carfare are provided for the children. 
The increased cost for the salaries of the 
teachers may easily be computed in any 
locality on the basis that teachers of the 
very highest class are needed and that 
there must be one teacher for approximately 
every twenty children. 

The other increases in running expenses 
will be largely for food and clothing. The 
necessary expenditure for clothing will vary 
according to the suitability and amount 
of clothing the children bring from home, 
and in a similar way the cost for food will 
largely depend on how great a deficiency in 
the home supply must be met. No general 
rules can be laid down beyond the imperative 
one that it is absolutely essential that the 
children be supplied from some source with 
an abundance of suitable clothing and 
plenty of wholesome food of the right kind. 

Probably because of the varying factors 
which enter into all the considerations of cost 
in relation to the new schools the information 



COST 115 

as to cost furnished in their reports is mostly 
general in character. This will be seen on 
examining the figures published in the report 
of the parent school in Germany. 

The Charlottenburg experiment was car- 
ried on for three months and began with 
ninety-five children, a number which was 
afterward increased to one hundred 
twenty. The following table gives some 
details of the total expenditure during 
this time: 

Schoolrooms $2,430 

Open shed 315 

Washing and bathing room . . . 218 

Offices 243 

Water and drainage 243 

Milk and vegetable cellars ... 73 

Wire fence 131 

Internal equipment 1,215 

Educational equipment .... 291 

Provisions 1,336 

Additions to teachers' salaries . . Ill 

Doctor's fee 73 

Two cooks and two scullery maids . 87 

Tramway fares ...... 82 

Total . $6,848 



116 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

It is to be noted that only the last five 
items, amounting in all to a total expendi- 
ture of $1,689, can properly be considered 
running expenses. The other items come 
under the head of permanent investment. 
Another point which must not be over- 
looked is that the salaries of the teachers 
are not included. The cost of food 
amounted to about twelve cents per child 
per day. For this sum five meals per day 
were provided. 

Turning now to the first English experi- 
ment at Bostall Wood we find that 
the school took care of an average of 
eighty children in actual attendance for 
seventy-eight days. The expenses were as 
follows : 

SCHOOL EXPENSES 

Salaries of teachers (one principal and 

four teachers) $815 

Janitor . 119 

Books, etc. 79 

Furniture, etc. 348 

$1,361 



COST 117 

FEEDING 
Food $868 

Cook and helpers ...... 95 

Fuel . . 9 

$972 

OTHER EXPENSES 

Nurse $120 

Sanitary arrangements . . . . 161 

Travelling (children) 192 

Travelling (teachers) 49 

Boxes for storing school property . 62 

Miscellaneous 32 

$616 
Total expenditure . . , , . 2,949 

A computation based on the above figures 
shows that the cost of food, including the 
expense for fuel and for the v^ages of the 
cook and helpers, amounted to a little less 
than sixteen cents per day for each child. 
For this sum four meals a day v^ere pro- 
vided. 

Turning now to America, there is even 
less definite information available. The 
report of the Boston school gives the infor- 



118 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

mation that the cost for the school teachers 
and the school equipment is about the 
same as it would be in any other school. 
The cost of the raw food for each child is 
about twenty cents a day, and the cost 
of preparing and serving it together with 
all of the other expenses included beyond 
the school expenses is about thirty cents 
a day. It is stated that with the school 
running on a larger scale these figures 
could be reduced. These Boston figures 
were based on the expenses for a school of 
about forty children. 

More detailed figures are available in the 
case of the school maintained in Chicago 
in 1909 by the Board of Education and the 
Chicago Tuberculosis Institute. Here thirty 
children were cared for for one month. 
The cost of maintenance of this school, 
is given as follows: 

COST OF MAINTENANCE 

(Not including Teaching Service and 
Equipment) 

Transportation $46.30 

Cook and helper 30.90 



COST 



119 



Half-time salary of nurse 
Food — Bread, crackers, and 
cookies 

Milk and cream 

Butter and cheese 

Eggs , . . • 

Groceries 

Fruits and vegetables 

Meat, poultry, and fish 

Ice .... 

Sweets . 



35.00 



30 tooth-brushes at 20 cents 
Miscellaneous expenses 



$15.35 
68.90 
10.42 
44.03 
13.59 
22.91 
14.25 
4.00 
.85 



194.30 

6.00 
8.96 



Total cost $321.46 

Cost per child per day. 

Forfood{ IXishments h^-^ <=-*« 
For transportation . . . 7.0 cents 
For service and other expenses 12.3 cents 



Total 



48.7 cents 



To sum up, the added cost of maintaining 
an open-air school will depend on the neces- 
sary local expenditure for securing quar- 



120 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

ters, employing unusually capable teachers 
in the ratio of one teacher for every twenty or 
twenty-five pupils, and supplying necessary 
clothing and food of good quality but 
simple character. Indeed, in the entire 
matter of equipping an open-air school 
simplicity should be the keynote. 

This does not necessarily mean that the 
buildings should be of flimsy temporary 
construction or lacking convenience or 
suitability. Much less does it mean that 
economy of a parsimonious sort can be for 
a moment tolerated in supplying necessary 
food and clothing. It does mean that no 
allowance whatever should be made for 
ostentatious display or luxuries. 



CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 



CHAPTER VIII 

CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 

PROBABLY no one man has made a 
more thorough technical study of 
the construction of hospitals and sana- 
toria for the tubercular than has Dr. 
Thomas S. Carrington, Assistant Sec- 
retary of the National Association for 
the Study and Prevention of Tuber- 
culosis, and Expert on Hospital Con- 
struction in the New York State De- 
partment of Health. It is because his 
professional equipment enables him to 
speak with authority that the material 
presented in this chapter has been 
largely taken from an article by Dr. 
Carrington entitled "How to Build and 
Equip an Outdoor School," published in 
the Survey for April 23, 1910; and from 
other information furnished through his 
courtesy, 

123 



124 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

CONSTRUCTION 

Open-air schools, as we find them in 
America, may be divided into two general 
classes. In the first of these we may include 
those open-air schools which are carried on 
in buildings exclusively devoted to the pur- 
pose. In practice these buildings are gen- 
erally simple and often temporary in char- 
acter. Open-air schools of the second type 
may be classed under the heading, "fresh- 
air rooms." These are schools conducted 
in the rooms of school buildings which 
have been altered to suit the new require- 
ments. 

Turning to the schools of the first class, 
which are conducted in buildings exclu- 
sively devoted to the purpose, we find them 
ranging in building equipment all the way 
from the comparatively elaborate plants 
found in the forest schools of Germany 
and England to the buildings on unoccupied 
country estates which have been used both 
abroad and in this country, and to the 
extremely simple temporary buildings which 



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CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 125 

have been erected on the roofs of school 
and other buildings in Boston, New York, 
and Chicago. 

These small buildings, of a size to 
accommodate not more than twenty-five 
or thirty pupils, are little more than per- 
manent tents built partly of wood and 
partly of other materials. The following 
description of the construction of a New 
York building gives details which may 
be considered typical: 

The building is 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, 
and 12 feet high at the highest point of the 
roof and can be built at a cost of about 
$500. It is in the shape of a rectangle 
with a flat roof. The roof is supported by 
4-x-4-inch timber posts at the corners and 
at the centre of the end walls. These 
uprights are reenforced by 2-x-4 joists placed 
4 feet apart on all sides of the building, 
while the roof support consists of a 3-x-6 
timber girder running the length of the 
room and supported by a post in the middle. 
The roof consists of tongued and grooved 
inch boards laid on rafters and covered 
with rubberoid roofing. The floor is made 



126 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

of narrow floor boards laid on 2-x-4 supports 
and covered with battleship linoleum. The 
four sides of the room are enclosed by 
board walls up to a height of 3 feet from 
the floor. Above this the north and west 
sides are enclosed by alternating panels 
of narrow boards and long windows hung 
from the ceiling. 

The south and west sides are open above 
the wainscoting, but protected from wind 
and storms by canvas curtains on rollers 
which carry them entirely out of the way 
when not in use. 

In cities where the wooden construction 
is forbidden by the building or fire regula- 
tions, asbestos board siding may be sub- 
stituted for wooden siding. This construc- 
tion has proved successful in the Chicago 
school. Experience shows that the children 
can comfortably live in the open air even 
at very low temperatures if they are thor- 
oughly protected from the wind. 

Even such simple and inexpensive build- 
ings as these have not been found necessary 
in all cases. In Chicago, Boston, Hartford, 
and Rochester the first open-air schools 




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CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 127 

were housed In tents, and this practice is 
still maintained in the Connecticut city. 
There is, however, an unoccupied dwelling- 
house available which is utilized for shelter 
during very inclement weather. The kitch- 
en facilities are also used for preparing 
the food, and one of the upper rooms with 
wide-open windows has been used as a 
sleeping room during the rest hour of the 
children. 

It would seem that the experience of 
Hartford in utilizing the unoccupied 
dwelling-house on an estate provided with 
ample grounds might be followed in many 
other places where the temporary use of 
the property might be available without 
the necessity of purchasing it. 

Another useful lesson in constructive 
economy is to be found in what New York 
has done in utilizing abandoned ferry-boats 
for open-air classes. Perhaps no better 
illustration can be found of putting an 
apparently useless piece of property to a 
useful service. 

The second class of open-air schools 
consists of schools conducted in what we 



128 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

have called "fresh-air rooms." The expe- 
dient of remodelling existing schoolrooms 
so that they will serve for the fresh-air 
classes has the great advantage of making 
it possible to start work wherever there is 
a room available in one of the public school 
buildings. The experience at Providence 
shows that such a location may at times 
be found in school buildings which have 
been abandoned by the regular classes, but 
may be remodelled for the new use at com- 
paratively slight expense. There must be 
in many cities similar old school buildings 
which can easily be utilized. 

The best way to fit the schoolroom for 
the new use seems to be first to choose a 
room with a southern exposure and then 
to remove the outside wall on that side so 
far as possible. This operation converts 
the four-sided schoolroom into one of three 
sides. The fourth side is then filled in with 
long windows reaching clear to the floor 
and hinged at the top and provided with 
pulleys and cords so that they may be 
raised against the ceiling of the room on 
the inside. 




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The windows in the Pro\ddence school are liinged at the 

top and can be raised against the ceiHng 

by cords and pulleys 



CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 129 

A less expensive way is not to attempt to 
remove the entire wall, but simply to cut 
the existing windows down to the floor 
level and provide the openings with window 
sashes hinged from the top. A still less 
expensive expedient, but one that is not as 
satisfactory, is to leave the window openings 
as they are and simply to substitute for the 
present sliding sashes full-length hinged 
sashes. 

However the alterations may be made, 
experience shows that it is best to seat the 
children in movable chairs so placed that 
the children's backs shall be toward the 
open side of the room. 

In buildings provided with mechanical 
heating and ventilating systems the intakes 
are cut off and hand regulations substituted 
for the automatic mechanism. The Provi- 
dence experience shows that in buildings 
where no heating plant is in operation a 
satisfactory substitute may be provided by 
installing an old-fashioned heating stove 
in the schoolroom. The consensus of 
opinion among those who have had exper- 
ience with the new schools is that the temper- 



130 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

ature should not be allowed to fall much 
lower than forty degrees Fahrenheit even 
in the coldest weather. 

All of the experiments that have so far been 
conducted show that the changes necessary 
to convert an existing schoolroom into a 
fresh-air room are comparatively simple 
and inexpensive in either old or new build- 
ings. In schools in course of construc- 
tion still better arrangements can be 
made, and fresh-air rooms with two or 
three sides open to the weather may be 
constructed. 

CLOTHING 

There is unanimous agreement on the 
proposition that if children are to bene- 
fit from the open-air treatment they must 
be well fed and kept warm. Keeping them 
warm in rooms where the temperature is 
frequently low can only be accomplished 
by providing them with sufficient clothing 
of just the right sort. If they do not possess 
good woollen underwear and warm well- 
fitting outer garments these must be supplied 



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CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 131 

directly by the school or indirectly by some 
charitable agency. 

It is absolutely essential that each child be 
provided with a heavy overcoat, sitting-out 
bag, two blankets, a knitted toboggan cap, 
and warm gloves. If a child comes to 
school with his shoes and stockings damp 
they should be removed and others belong- 
ing to the school substituted. In the Provi- 
dence school low felt shoes have been found 
most satisfactory for such use. In the 
school now maintained on the roof of 
the Mary Crane Nursery in Chicago the 
children are provided with Eskimo suits 
which have proved satisfactory for the 
purpose and are unusually attractive in 
appearance. 

Several of the schools have found it 
advisable to provide soapstones or hot- 
water bottles which are placed at the chil- 
dren's feet in very cold weather. Some 
diflSiculty with the use of the soapstones has 
been found in Providence, where experience 
showed that the thin, poor soles of the 
children's cheap shoes were rapidly cracked 
and ruined by the effect of the heat from 



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Handwork recei\es as umeh attention as health and head 
work on the Southfield, New York City 




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Tables and chairs are substituted for desks and seats in 
the fresh-air rooms of the Graham School, Chicago 



CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 133 

Experience has shown that the chil- 
dren are very apt to regard these bags as 
ideal places for collecting and guarding a 
miscellaneous collection of the treasures 
of childhood, including food supplies, which 
they store up for future possible need. This 
propensity of the children constitutes a 
genuinely . serious objection to sitting-out 
bags. Another objection is that a bag which 
is shaped to the chair is not convenient for 
use in reclining-chairs or when the child 
is lying in bed. 

In order to overcome these objections 
Dr. Carrington has developed a simple 
cheap bag which can be made at home or 
manufactured in large quantities at a low 
price. This bag is so arranged that it can 
be opened out flat for brushing and airing, 
and when closed and buckled it is perfectly 
tight and wind-proof. Such a bag is a 
great improvement over the old-style sewed- 
up bag. 

The Rhode Island State Board of Health 
loans upon application a miniature model 
of a sitting-out bag with the following 
directions for making: 



134 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

The sitting-out bag should be made to 
suit the patient — a small one for a child, 
and a longer one with more turned up at the 
bottom for a tall person. Obtain the fol- 
lowing materials: 

7 yds. outing flannel $0.70 

6 rolls cotton batting 60 

1 spool linen thread 10 

1 piece of braid 10 

6 or 7 layers of newspaper 

The flannel should be spread on a flat 
surface and one-half of same covered first 
with batting; second, six or seven layers of 
newspapers; third, a second layer of cotton 
waste. Spread the other half of the flannel 
over this, tack with a strong thread like a 
mattress, and stitch all around the edge. 

You now have a long strip which should 
be turned up at the bottom 1| yards. Sew 
up the edges 25 in. Attach tapes to top of 
flap and to top corners of bag. 

While arrangements are being made to 
provide for the comfort of the children in 
the open-air school the teacher should not 
be forgotten. She should be provided with 
a long heavy wool or fur coat, a fur cap and 



CONSTRUCTION AND CLOTHING 135 

mittens, and felt shoes. There should also 
be laid under her chair a piece of thick 




Dr. Carrington's Sitting-out Bag 

carpet or rug to help in protecting the feet, 
and in very cold weather she is likely to 
find a foot-box a comfortable addition to 
her equipment. 



FORMS FOR RECORD-KEEPING 



CHAPTER IX 

rORMS FOR RECORD -KEEPING 

SO FAR few forms have been developed 
for keeping the individual records of 
the pupils in open-air schools. That such 
forms are needed is clear, and it is equally 
certain that they must be adapted to the 
peculiar conditions maintaining in the new 
class of schools. They must be primarily 
records of progress, not mere statements of 
such commonly kept data as enrolment, 
attendance, class standing, etc., nor even 
records which will only record the physical 
condition of the children upon entering or at 
one or two stated times during the school 
year. The one important question is 
whether or not children are steadily making 
progress, and, above all, physical progress. 
Diligent inquiry among open-air schools 
now in operation has brought to light only 
three record forms designed to record such 

139 



140 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

facts. The Providence and Chicago schools 
are using individual cards for recording 
the facts about each pupil, and in Hartford 
a weight chart is used which shows in 
graphic form the fluctuations in weight of 
each child from week to week. 

Facing page 141 is a facsimile of one of 
the Providence cards filled in with data 
concerning one of the children of that 
school. 

As a mere record of social and physical 
facts it seems very well adapted to its 
purpose. It is not, however, so designed 
as to record progress satisfactorily. 

The reverse of the card is simply ruled 
horizontally and in columns, and it is the 
practice of the school authorities in Provi- 
dence to record in these spaces the results 
of the periodical weighing and the haemo- 
globin tests. The card does not, however, 
provide for any uniform method of record- 
ing these data. 

Something of an improvement over the 
Providence card is found in the form which 
was used in the Chicago school in the sum- 
mer of 1909. As it was realized at the outset 




a 



RECORD-KEEPING 141 

that this was merely a summer school 
and would be maintained for a short term 
only, the card was designed to record the 
facts for each child for a term of six weeks. 
It served this purpose very satisfactorily, 
but could not be so adapted as to serve for 
an entire school year. A facsimile of this 
card is shown on page 142. 

A valuable feature found in the Provi- 
dence card, but absent in the Chicago one, 
is the provision for recording the family 
history and the personal history of the child. 

One form in use in the school of Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, is an improvement over 
the forms already considered in that it 
provides for a graphic representation of 
one most important datum : the fluctuations 
in the weight of each child. No attempt is 
made in this form to register anything else 
than facts respecting the child's weight. 
The chart is extremely simple. It consists 
of a form ruled horizontally and vertically, 
each horizontal space corresponding to one 
pound in weight and each vertical space to 
one week in time. 

Thus in the case of Camella, whose weight 



142 



OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 




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RECORD-KEEPING 



143 



chart is reproduced, the weight upon enter- 
ing the school in the week beginning Jan- 
uary 3 was 76J pounds. A dot was made 
in the square of the chart corresponding 



WEIGHT CHART. 

Name, CamellaA. 



91 



HARTFORD OPEN-Affi SCHOOL 

Age, 12 years Normal Weight, 91 .2 



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144 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

to this weight and to the first week to record 
this fact. When Camella was weighed dur- 
ing the second week she had so increased 
in weight that she weighed nearly 82 pounds. 
A dot was placed in the corresponding 
square of the chart and the two dots con- 
nected by a line. This process, repeated 
each week as time went on, shows that she 
steadily increased in weight for the first 
six weeks, lost in the seventh, and increased 
again during the eighth week. 

In the upper left-hand corner of the 
chart there is a small cross just above the 
91-pound level. This indicates that the 
school authorities considered the normal 
weight for a girl of Camella's age to be 91.2 
pounds, and that the difference between 
this weight and the weight actually recorded 
shows the degree to which the girl was below 
normal weight. 

In this process of reporting progress an 
upward trend of the line from week to week 
indicates that all is going well, whereas 
a downward trend means that there is 
something wrong and something needs 
attention. The record of the normal 



RECORD-KEEPING 145 

weight, which may be regarded somewhat 
in the light of an ideal to which it is aimed 
to raise the child, is interesting, but of 
doubtful value. The normal weight for 
a certain age, as the term is generally used, 
simply means the average weight which 
is secured from the recorded weights of 
a great many individuals all of a given 
age. While such a figure is interesting 
and has its uses, it may not be at all valuable 
as an indication of the best possible weight 
for any given individual. 

Two interesting forms are used in the 
Franklin Park School in Boston. The first 
is a personal record sheet which is filled 
out by the child himself every day and has 
on it sufficient spaces so that one sheet lasts 
for one week. 

The headings under which the child 
makes his entries each day are eloquent 
testimony of some of the fundamental 
differences between open-air schools and 
those of the conventional type. The fact 
that the child records such things as the hour 
of sunset, the direction of the wind, read- 
ing of the thermometer, as well as data 



146 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

PERSONAL RECORD— FRANKLIN PARK SCHOOL 



Day 












Hour 












Sunrise 












Sunset 












Length of day 












Gain or loss in day 












Direction of wind 












Kind of rlniids 












Precipitation 












Rain gauge 












Weather report 












Moon's phases 












Evening star 












Morning star 












Comet, when seen .... 












Reading of thermometer 












Movement of bowels 












Times urinating during day. 
Cough? 






















Raise ? 












What I ate for supper at home 
What I ate for breakfast . 






















What I do when I get home. 
Report of matron 



































RECORD-KEEPING 



147 



PERSONAL TERM RECORD-FRANEXIN PARK SCHOOL 



Date 

Absent .... 

Tardy 

Car record . . . 
Weight .... 
Height .... 
Glasses needed . . 

Hearing {j^*^^. ; ; 

Baths at home . . 
Baths at school 








































































































































Care of school coats, 
hats, mittens, wristers 
Walks for observation 
Games and free play 
Breathing exercises . 


















































BagdriU. . . . 
Wash room . . . 
Care of paper bags 
Care of teeth . . 
Care of nails . . 
Deportment . . . 
Time in reclining cha 

Truant 

Manual training . , 

Cooking 

Scholarship .... 
Sent to principal . . 


ir 







































































































































148 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

concerning his physical well-being, shows 
how different an aspect school work takes 
on under the new conditions. 

The second of the forms mentioned is 
the personal term record which is filled out 
by the principal and which has spaces for 
recording the essential facts about each 
child for one-half of the school year. Here 
again the information recorded is of a kind 
entirely novel in ordinary school practice. 



THE NEED FOR OPEN-AIR 
SCHOOLS 



CHAPTER X 

THE NEED FOR OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

THE open-air school, as it has been 
developed in America, is primarily 
a school for caring for children who are 
suffering from tuberculosis or predisposed 
to the disease. In short, it is essentially 
a therapeutic agent for a special class 
of sufferers. In Europe the aim has 
been quite different and distinctly broader. 
This is indicated in the term "open-air- 
recovery schools," which is frequently used 
abroad. 

The pupils for whom the schools have 
been designed abroad are physically debili- 
tated children who are suffering from 
anaemia and various forms of incipient 
disease, but who are not necessarily even 
in the " pretubercular " class. They are 
children who are able to attend the regular 
schools and even to some extent to profit 

151 



152 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

from the instruction given, but whose vitality 
has been greatly impaired. 

For these children the open-air-recovery 
school has been devised. Its province is 
to carry on the instruction of the children 
with the help of improved methods and 
surroundings while at the same time endeav- 
ouring to cure or ameliorate the ailments 
from which they suffer. 

From the administrative viewpoint two 
questions at once arise. The first is that 
of cost, and the second, the question how 
many of these schools should be provided 
to fill adequately the existing need. The 
question of the expense of maintaining 
the schools is treated in the chapter on 
"Cost"; that of the indirect economies in 
lives and expenditure to be effected through 
establishing these new schools as preven- 
tive agents may well be considered here. 

In the first place what do deaths of school 
children from tuberculosis cost us each 
year ? According to the report of the 
United States Commissioner of Education 
for 1908 there are in the schools of this 
country, public and private, some 18,200,000 



THE NEED FOR OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 153 

children. These children range in age 
from five to nineteen years. Recent studies 
show that about 43 per cent, of them are 
between the ages of five and nine, 50 per 
cent, between those of 10 and 14, and 
7 per cent, between the ages of 15 and 19. 

Now the reports of the Census tell us 
that deaths from all forms of tuberculosis 
among each 100,000 children are each year 
as follows: 

Ages Deaths per 100,000 

5- 9 17.9 

10-14 34.5 

15-19 143.1 

These data enable us to compute that 
the number of school children who die each 
year in this country from all forms of tuber- 
culosis is about 6,400. 

The average age at which these children 
die is about twelve and one-half years. 
We shall not be far wrong if we estimate 
that they have had six years of schooling 
each. This schooling has been paid for at 
the average rate of $30 per year for each 
child. The money loss which is sustained 



154 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

by the community in each case amounts 
to $180 for schooling alone. The aggregate 
loss each year from this cause reaches a 
total of $1,152,000. It is impossible to 
compute in money terms the loss in doctors' 
fees, wrecked hopes, and ruined homes, 
but enough has been told to indicate the 
serious character of the problem. 

Turning now to the other side of the 
question, how many open-air schools should 
be provided to meet adequately the need 
which exists .? The evidence from which 
we may answer the question is fragmentary 
but fairly consistent. 

Dr. Frederick Rose, who is admittedly the 
foremost English authority on the subject, 
says that from 3 to 5 per cent, of all school 
children are of such a type that they may pro- 
fit from instruction in open-air schools, but 
cannot properly be cared for in ordinary ones. 

According to figures published in the 
tenth annual report of the City Superintend- 
ent of Schools of New York for 1908 
physical examinations among more than 
210,000 children in that city show that 
those suffering from malnutrition, cardiac 



THE NEED FOR OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 155 

diseases, and pulmonary diseases amounted 
to 4 per cent, of all. 

The report of the Department of School 
Hygiene of Boston for 1907 shows that 
the children suffering from malnutrition, 
anaemia, cardiac diseases, and tuberculosis 
constitute 2.25 per cent, of all the children 
examined. 

The National Association for the Study 
and Prevention of Tuberculosis has issued 
a statement to the effect that investigations 
in Stockholm, Sweden, showed 1.61 per 
cent, of the school children were suffering 
from tuberculosis. 

Medical inspection in Atlanta, Georgia, 
in 1909 showed that pupils suffering from 
malnutrition, anaemia, cardiac diseases, and 
tuberculosis were 5.8 per cent, of the total 
school membership. 

A report on the schools of St. Paul for 
1909 shows that children suffering from 
cardiac diseases and tuberculosis together 
were 2.7 per cent, of all. 

A report from Appleton, Wisconsin, shows 
3 per cent, of the children suffering from 
malnutrition. 



156 OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS 

The first selection of pupils needing 
open-air treatment in the Boston schools 
was made in the first part of the school 
year 1909-10. It has already been referred 
to in the chapter on "Open-air Schools in 
the United States." The result was that 5 
per cent, of the children were found by the 
school physicians to be in need of the 
treatment afforded by the open-air classes. 

In April, 1910, Dr. Henry R. Hopkins, 
chairman of the Committee on Open-air 
Schools of the city of Buffalo, New York, 
said that about 7 per cent, of the school 
children of that city needed the same sort 
of treatment. 

All of these different pieces of evidence 
indicate that in the average city-school 
system the children who are in need of such 
treatment as that afforded by the open-air 
school constitute from 3 to 5 per cent, 
of the entire membership. It would prob- 
ably not be far out of the way to say that 
of these at least one-third, or from 1 to 
2 per cent, of all, are either definitely 
suffering from tuberculosis or are pre- 
tubercular. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BAGINSKY, ADOLF. Ueber Waldschulen und Walder- 
holungstatten. Zeits. fur pad. Psy. Path, und 
Hygiene, 1906, Vol. 8, pp. 161-177. 

BENDIX, DR. B. Ueber die Charlottenburger Wald- 
sehule. Deutsche VieHeljahrsschrift f. offentliche 
Gesundheitspflege, September, 1906, Bd. 39, Heft 2, 
pp. 305-322. 

Verhandlagen der VII. Jahresversammlung des 
Deutschen Vereins fur Schulgesundheitspflege. Verlag 
von Teubner, Berlin. 

BIENSTOCK, DR. Die Waldsehule in Miilhausen. 
Strasshurger Medizinische Zeitung, 1 Heft, 1907: 
Zeitschrift fur Schulgesundheitspflege, No. II, 1908. 
Leopold Voss, Hamburg. 

BJORKMAN, EDWIN. The Outdoor School. Van 
Norden, December, 1909. New York City. 

BRYCE, DR. P. H. Open-air Schools and Preventoria. 

Med. Review of Reviews, August, 1909. New York 
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BYLES, A. HOLDEN. The Open-air School. The 
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159 



160 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CARRINGTON, DR. THOMAS S. How to Build and 
Equip an Open-air School. The Survey, April 23, 
1910. New York City. 

CLARK, IDA HOOD. Open-air Schools. Proceed- 
ings N. E. A., 1909 Irwin Shepard, Winona, Minn. 
Open-air or Forest Schools of England and 
Germany. Kindergarten Review, April, 1910, Vol. 
XX, No. 8. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass. 
Pp. 462-469. 

CROWLEY, RALPH H. Report by the Medical 
Superintendent on the Thackley Open-air School. 
City of Bradford Education Committee. December 
10, 1908. Bradford, England. 

The Open-air School Movement. The British 
Journal of Tuberculosis, July, 1909, Vol. Ill, No. 3. 
G. E. Stechert & Co , 151-155 W. 25th Street, New 
York City. 

The Open-air-recovery School, Chap. XIV of The 
Hygiene of School Life. Methuen & Co., 1910, 
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CURTIS, ELNORA W. Outdoor Schools. Ped. Sem., 
June, 1909, pp. 169-194, Vol. XVI. Worcester, Mass. 
Bibhography. (Best and most comprehensive treat- 
ment in English.) 

Outdoor Schools. American City, November, 1909, 
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FLOYD, CLEAVLAND. Care of Phthisis in Children 
Through the Outdoor School, American Journal of 
Public Hygiene, November, 1909, pp. 747-751. Bos- 
ton, Mass. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 161 

GODFREY, BETTY. An Inexpensive Outdoor School. 
Good Housekeeping, Phelps Publishing Co., Spring- 
field, Mass. May, 1910. 

(This is a description of the school at Hartford 
Conn.) 

GORST, SIR JOHN. Chapter in "The Children of 
the Nation." 1907, Methuen & Co., 36 Essex St., 
London. 

GRAU, DR. H. Ergebnisse und Bedeutung der Wald- 
schule. Centralblatt f. allg. Gesundheitspflege, 1906, 
25. Jahr, Heft 11-12, pp. 373-480. 

GRAY, ERNEST. Open-air Schools. North of Eng- 
land Educational Conference, 1909. 

HARTT, MARY BRONSON. A School on a Roof. 
Boston Transcript, May 11, 1910. Boston. 

(A serious descriptive article of the school in 
Franklin Park, Boston). 

HUETZER, DR. Walderholungstatten und Waldschule. 
Centralblatt f. allg. Gesundheitspflege. 1906. 25. 
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HENDERSON, C. H. Outdoor Schools. The World^s 
Work, January, 1909. Doubleday, Page & Co., New 
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HYAMS ISABEL F., and MINOT, DR. JAMES. 

Boston's Outdoor School. Journal of Outdoor Life, 
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(The above article has been reprinted in "Outdoor 
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Relief and Control of Tuberculosis, 4 Joy Street.) 



162 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

KAUFMAN, EUNICE H. School in the Forest. Tlie 
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York City. 

(A description of the Forest School at Charlotten- 
burg, Germany.) 

KINGSLEY, SHERMAN. Tuberculous Children on a 
City Roof. The Survey, March 5, 1910. New York 
City. Pp. 863-866. 

(An account of the school carried on by the United 
Charities of Chicago.) 

KOENIG, INSPECTOR. Die Waldschule in Mulhausen. 
Strassburger Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt. 

KRAFT, DR. A. Waldschulen. Verlag. Art. Institul, 
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KRUESI, WALTER E. The Providence Fresh-air 
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School of Outdoor Life, Roxbury, Mass. The 
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School of Outdoor Life. Charities and the Com- 
mons, December, 1908, Vol. 21. No. 12, pp. 447-449. 
New York City. 

LANGE, W. Die Waldschule. Pad. Warte, October, 
Jahr. 15, Heft 20, pp. 1096-1107. 

Die Charlottenburger Waldschule. Neue Bahnen, 
XVIII, No. ii. 

LENNHOFF, DR. RUDOLF. Walderholungstatten 
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Gesundheitspfiege, 1906, Bd. 39, pp. 71-107. 



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DE MONTMORENCY, J. E. School Excursions and 
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Reports on Educational Subjects. London, 1907 
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MORIN, JEANNE. An Open-air School in France. 
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NEUFERT, DR. H., and BENDIX, DR. B. Die 

Charlottenburger Waldschule im ersten Jahr ihres 
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SCHAEFER, DR. Zur EroflFnung der Waldschule der 

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THIEL, PETER J. Die Waldschule in der freien 
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WILLIAMS, RALPH P. Sheffield Open-air School. 
British Journal of Tuberculosis, April, 1910, pp. 
101-106. G. E. Stechert & Co., New York City. 

Sheffield Open-air-recovery School. School Hy- 
giene, March, 1910, Vol. I, No. 3, pp. 136-143. 
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WING, FRANK E. Report of Chicago's First Out- 
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berculosis Institute, 158 Adams Street, Chicago. 
November, 1909. 



REPORTS 



REPORTS 



AMEBICAN 

BOSTON, MASS. Report of the Commission appointed 
by the School Committee of the City of Boston to 
Investigate the Problem of Tuberculosis Among 
School Children. School Document No. 2, 1909. 

(Also printed in "Outdoor Schools," issued by 
the Boston Association for Relief and Control of 
Tuberculosis, 4 Joy Street, Boston.) 

" Outdoor Schools." Issued by the Boston Associa- 
tion for the Relief and Control of Tuberculosis, 
August, 1909. 4 Joy Street. (A pamphlet of thirty 
pages, containing accounts of the Providence and 
Boston Schools, the report of the Boston School 
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CHICAGO, ILL. "Chicago's First Outdoor School for 
Tuberculous Children." Issued by the Chicago 
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PROVIDENCE, R. I. Report of School Committee, 
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1908-09, pp. 54-55. 

ENGLISH 

BRADFORD. Thackley Open-air School. Report of 
the Medical Inspector. Bradford Education Com- 
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169 



170 REPORTS 

COUNTY BOROUGH OF HALIFAX. Report on 
Bermerside Open-air School, July 20 to October 15, 
1909. Halifax: Whitley & Booth, Crown Street. 

LONDON. London County Council. Report of the 
Education Committee of the Council submitting: 
(i) A Report of the Educational Adviser on experi- 
ments conducted in Germany in connection with 
Open-air Schools, and (ii) A Joint Report of the 
Medical Officer and the Executive Officer on the 
Open-air School carried on in Bostall Wood between 
twenty-second July and nineteenth October, 1907. 
No. 1164. P. S. King and Son, 2 and 4 Great 
Smith Street, Westminster, S. W. 

Report of the Education Committee of the Council, 
submitting a Joint Report of the Education Officer 
and the Medical Officer (Education) on the Open- 
air Schools held at Birley House, Dulwich: Mont- 
peher House, Upper Holloway, and Shrewsbury 
House, Woolwich, between the tenth June and 
thirty-first October, 1908. Pp. 20. London: 
Southwood, Smith and Co., 93 and 94 Long Acre, 
W. C. 1909. 

MANCHESTER. The Manchester Country School for 
Town Children. Fourth Annual Report. 1907. 
Pp. 1-12. 

Fifth Annual Report of Education Committee. 
1906-07. Pp. 50-54; 220-223. 



GERMAN 

ELBERFELD. Waldschule im Bergischen Lande. Verein 
fur Gemeinwohl, Elberfeld. 



REPORTS 171 



MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES AND EDITORIALS 

BOSTON, MASS. Success for AU-the-year-round School 
on a Roof. The Sunday Herald, Boston, May 8, 
1910. 

(Description of the school in Franklin Park, 
Boston). 

HARTFORD, CONN. Day School in the Open Air. 
The Hartford Daily Courant, January 19, 1910. 

Children in Quest of Health Get Knowledge. 
Hartford Sunday Post, March 13, 1910. 

LONDON, ENG. The London County Council Open- 
air Schools. Progress, July, 1908, Vol. 2, p. 216. 
British Institute of Social Service, 11 Southampton 
Row, London, W. C. 

Open-air Schools in England. Progress, October, 
1908, Vol. 2, pp. 278-279. British Institute of Social 
Service, 11 Southampton Row, W. C. 

Open-air School, Sheffield. Progress, April, 1910. 
No. 18. British Institute of Social Service. 11 
Southampton Row. 

Open-air Life for Children. Editorial, British Jour- 
nal of Tuberculosis, July, 1909, Vol. Ill, No. 3. G. 
E. Stechert & Co., 151-155 W. 25th Street, New 
York City. 

The Open-air School. Editorial, School Hygiene, 
March, 1910, No. 3, Vol. 1, pp. 125-130. School 
Hygiene Publication Company, 2 Charlotte Street. 

NEW YORK CITY. Babes in the Wood in Healthful 

Study. New York Herald, Sunday, October 24, 1909. 

PROVIDENCE, R. I. Teaching in the Open Air. 
The Sunday Tribune, January 23, 1910. 



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